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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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The Secret to Surviving Dark Days 0:00 Shall we give the Lord a clap offering church? It is always a joy and a privilege to bring God's word into your homes. Today, we are continuing our series in the book of Habakkuk. This is the third0:12 message. Today, we're gonna be studying from chapter 2 verse 2 to verse 20. I'm titling this sermon, the secret to survival. The secret to surviving dark and0:23 difficult days. Let's talk to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly father, we thank you so much for this privilege that we have, that we can gather together and study your word. Father, we acknowledge that0:35 holy spirit is our teacher. Give us listening ears, Lord, and a heart that is willing to obey your word. We thank you for your goodness and your grace In Jesus name. And the people of God said, amen0:47 and amen. Listen to this letter a college student wrote to her parents. Dear mom and dad, I'm so sorry to be so long in writing you.0:58 Unfortunately, all my stationery was destroyed the night our dormitory was set on fire by the demonstrators. I'm out of the hospital now, and the doctors say my1:10 eyesight should return sooner or later. The wonderful boy, Bill, who rescued me from the fire, kindly offered to share his little apartment with me until the1:22 dorm is rebuilt. He comes from a good family, So you won't be surprised when I tell you we are going to be married. In fact, since you have always wanted a1:33 grandchild, you will be glad to know that you will be grandparents in several months. Signed your loving daughter. Then she wrote a postscript. P. S.1:45 Please disregard the above practice in English composition. There was no fire. I haven't been in the hospital. I'm not pregnant and I don't even have a steady boyfriend. But I1:57 did get a D in French and F in chemistry. And I just wanted to be sure you received the news in proper perspective. How important2:09 it is for us to look at things from the proper perspective. See, you and I, we need to realize there are 2 groups of people, People who get2:20 overwhelmed even for a paper cut. But at the same time, are people who can be steady emotionally even if the hand is chopped off. In other words, the severity of2:32 circumstance, there are people who are able to handle it. But then even for a simple thing, there are people who crumble like a 2 dollar suitcase. What makes the difference? The2:43 difference is how we see it. In the book of Habakkuk, Habakkuk brings before the Lord 2 complaints. He says, Lord, how long will you2:55 stay silent? How long will you cause me to see iniquity in Judah? And then the Lord replied to him, and the reply that the Lord gave him puzzled him. We saw it in3:07 our first sermon, the mysterious ways of God and the misunderstood work of God. As a result, he has a second complaint before the Lord. Why would you raise the Chaldeans to discipline righteous3:19 Judah? Why would you allow the wicked to punish the righteous? Now, today, in our text, we're going to study the reply of the Lord. See,3:31 Habakkuk took this posture to go and wait before the Lord in chapter 2 and verse 1. He waited before the Lord for a reply. And here in verse 2 all the way to verse 20,3:43 God's God gives him a divine revelation. And in this divine revelation, God addresses the key issues of Habakkuk's complaint. Will we survive?3:55 And God says, the righteous shall live by faith. What would you do with the wicked? God says, I'll deal with the wicked for their wickedness. I want us to look at chapter4:07 2 and verse 4. Chapter 2 and verse 4 is the key verse in the whole of the book of Habakkuk. This is what it says, behold. See, the word behold means4:19 to see. It is to be able to see from God's perspective. And here in verse 4, he says this, behold, his soul is puffed up. His soul referring to the wicked,4:31 the Babylonians here. His soul is puffed up. It is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith. I want you to listen to me carefully.4:43 The key question that you and I, we need to ask is how can we survive dark and difficult days? And here the Bible says that God was4:55 giving Habakkuk a divine perspective. See, sometimes we need to see from God's perspective. A prophet is a seer. There's another word for prophet,5:07 is a seer. In other words, he sees. He sees from God's perspective. So God was causing Habakkuk to see from his perspective. There are 2 things in particular. 1, God was giving him a5:19 larger view of perspective. And secondly, a longer view of period. Let me look at it 1 by 1. Larger view of perspective. In other words, he was moving him from a micro view to a5:31 macro view. See, many times in life, we look at things, what is happening in our life individually. Maybe we are concerned about what is happening to our family. But5:43 sometimes we don't take into account what God is doing in the city or even in the nation or globally among the nations. So what God does is he lifts5:54 us from a small view to a larger view, a larger view of perspective. See, in the prophet Isaiah, the Bible says in chapter6:06 6 and verse 5, prophet Isaiah cried out before God and he says, I'm a man of unclean lips and I live among unclean people. But then by the end of Isaiah's prophecy in chapter 60,6:18 he says, let the nations rise up. I want you to listen to me. He was only seeing his own life in the beginning. But then God trained him, tutored him and shaped him to see6:30 the larger view of perspective. That's what Habakkuk needs. That's what you and I need when we go through dark and difficult days. The second thing God does is he gives you a longer view of6:42 period, longer view of time. So we move from our own timetable. Why things are not happening? Things should have happened by yesterday. And God says, no, I'm working out my purposes6:54 and according to my time, according to my timetable, things will take place. So I want you to listen to me carefully. The key question that we want to consider in this sermon is7:06 this, how do we survive dark and difficult days? What does it take? So from chapter 2 verse 2 all the way to verse 20, I look at7:17 4 truths that we must hold on to. This is from the divine revelation that God gave Habakkuk, and I want us to glean 4 truths that we must hold on to in order to survive7:29 dark and difficult days. The first 1 is the reliability of God's word. In verse 2, he says this, and the Lord answered me, write the vision,7:41 make it plain on tablets so he may run who reads it. I love that phrase, so he may run who reads it. Here, God specifically addresses Habakkuk and he says, write down the vision,7:54 write down the prophecy, this prophetic vision. See, what you're reading today in the book of Habakkuk is the writings of Habakkuk. That's the vision he received.8:06 And the Bible says that vision, whoever reads it will run with it. So he may run who reads it. It can also be read as whoever is reading it will run with8:18 it. In other words, God actually expects that people not only receive the divine revelation, but they obey the divine revelation. So God says, you and I, when we are8:30 going through dark and difficult times, we got to rely upon the word of God. We got to come back to recognizing that God's word is reliable. It is true. And God's8:41 vision will come to pass. See, the Bible says in verse 3, the vision awaits its appointed time. It hastens to the end.8:53 It will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not delay. I want you to recognize this, that God's Word will come to pass. Even if it9:05 delays, even if it seems slow, it will surely come to pass. It will not lie. It has an appointed time. See, in the the book of Genesis, God9:17 spoke to a man by the name of Noah and says, I had it with the world. I'm going to judge the people in the land. And, you know, I'm going to send floods. And then he he established9:28 120 year timeline. And in that hundred and 20 year timeline, he gave Noah the grace to build an ark to save his own family. Now, towards the end of9:40 that hundred and 20 years, God speaks to Noah again and says, in 7 days, the floods will come. Now, from hundred and 20 years, suddenly it became 79:52 days. Now, Noah's hurry, buying all the groceries and stacking it up in the ark, and he's moving in so that he can be rescued. There is an acceleration as you enter into10:04 prophetic timeline. I want you to listen to me carefully. In the time of Exodus, the Bible says God spoke to Abraham in Genesis and says 400 years, your children will be10:16 aliens, foreigners in another land. They will be oppressed. After 400 years, the Bible says God sends Moses as a deliverer. And Moses10:27 performs mighty signs and wonders in Pharaoh's court for a few months. Then on 1 night, God says, tonight is the night the deliverance is gonna take place. It was the night of Passover.10:39 From slavery to freedom, they were set free overnight. But I want you to see this. God's appointed timeline is like this. For 400 years, they were in slavery.10:51 Few months, Moses was ministering in Pharaoh's court asking him to let go of God's people. But then suddenly, when God began to act on that very same day that he had11:03 appointed, things overturned and they were set free. I want you to listen to me carefully. God's appointment for you will come. That's why do not11:15 be depressed when you're going through dark and difficult days. Do not look at the circumstances and and lose hope. Rather, you rely upon the word of God. So the application principle I11:26 want to give you is this, hold on to the word of God, and hold on to it and obey it. Run it, run with it, read it and run with it. In other words, no matter how the days are dark, you11:38 still keep running with it. Story was told of a Bible translator who was translating the Bible in a native language. And when it came to the word obedience, he11:50 had no words in the native language. So he was asking the Lord, Lord, how would I describe the word obedience? And 1 day he was coming12:02 back to his house. And while he was coming back, his dog ran from his house to meet him and then followed and walked back with him. The12:14 local native was watching this whole thing and he said to the translator, your dog is all ears to you. He didn't understand, so he asked the native, what does that mean? He12:26 say, see, your dog pricked up. He's all ears to you. The moment he heard your footsteps, the moment he heard your voice, he ran towards you and he followed you. So he12:38 the dog is all ears to you. Right there, the Bible translator recognized. That's the word I want to use for obedience. Obedience is all years.12:50 Tune to receive from God, tune to hear God. And the moment you hear God, you run and obey him. Hallelujah. That's the picture Habakkuk says that you and I, we need to have.13:01 Enduring dark and difficult days, we need to tune in to hear God. At the same time, hold on to His Word and obey it. Praise God. The second thing we must hold on to is the resource13:13 for God's saints. Look at verse 4 again. Verse 4 says, behold his soul is puffed up. It is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith. I love13:25 that phrase. See, the reason why God is saying here, the righteous shall live by his faith, is because of this 1 thing that Habakkuk presented before the Lord.13:38 You know, in chapter 1 in verse 12, when Habakkuk was bringing the second complaint, he actually said, are you not from everlasting, oh Lord, my God. In other13:50 words, he called God an everlasting God, a covenant keeping God and a creator God with whom all things are possible. And then he makes a declaration of faith, a statement of14:01 faith. He says, we shall not die. That statement could also be a question. In in other words, I'm saying this, but yet I'm hesitant to say14:13 this. I do believe it, but I'm not sure how much I believe it. So he says, we shall not die, right? And here God is bringing an answer to him. You14:24 ask, will we survive this oppression? Will we survive this Babylonian captivity? And God says to Habakkuk, you will survive. How? The righteous shall live by his14:36 faith. Hallelujah. See the book of Habakkuk in chapter 1 and verse 4, he already established that the law is paralyzed. In other words, the people14:48 are not following the law of God. They're not keeping the law. They're not doing the works of the law. So justice is perverted. But here, God says to15:00 Habakkuk, the righteous shall live by his faith. The righteous in the olden days, in the old covenant, they don't live by faith. They live by the15:12 works of the law. They are only declared righteous because of the works of the law. But here, Habakkuk gets an insight into the new covenant. He gets a foretaste of what the new covenant is.15:24 And this is what it is. The righteous shall not live by their law keeping or by their good moral behavior, but the righteous shall live by his faith. It is a statement that was taken15:36 from Genesis chapter 15 and verse 6. When God was speaking to Abraham about his future, God says to Abraham, your descendants will be like the sand on the seashore at the stars in the sky.15:48 And God says, this is how I will bless you. And Abraham says, Lord, I believe it. And the Bible says it was accounted to him for righteousness. Hallelujah. That same phrase is paraphrased16:00 here. The righteous shall live by faith. Hallelujah. You are not saved because of your law keeping. You are saved because of your faith in16:11 God. Your confident trust in God. Hallelujah. And I love this phrase, by his faith. You know, I define faith like this.16:23 Faith is the confident trust in God's word, regardless of circumstances and consequences that results in our obedience to God. Despite what16:35 you're going through, no matter what the consequences are, no matter what the circumstances are, you are declaring before the Lord, I have confident trust in your word. I will hold on to16:46 it. And that results in our obedience to God. See, the New Testament authors love this phrase, the righteous shall live by faith. And there are 3 times they use it in the New16:58 Testament. Twice by Paul and the third time by the writer to Hebrews. Paul uses it in Romans chapter 1 and verse 17. He says in verse17:10 16, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. See, gospel is, it is the power of salvation.17:22 It is the power of salvation to everyone who does the law. No. To everyone who believes in Jesus Christ, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in the gospel, the righteousness of17:34 God is revealed from faith for faith. In other words, it begins with faith, it ends with faith. And in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed. The righteous shall live17:46 by faith. I want you to listen to me. The only reason why you and I can be saved is because Jesus took our place. He died for our sins. He paid the penalty with his own17:58 life. And because we believe in the work of Jesus, today, we are positionally declared righteous before God. As a result, we are saved. We are saved by18:09 faith. In Galatians chapter 3 and verse 11, Paul uses it the second time and he says, now it is evident that no 1 is justified before God by the law for righteous shall18:21 live by faith. In other words, in your daily life, you cannot be righteous before God, you cannot be justified before God because of your moral good behavior. It is not because of your law18:33 keeping that you are blessed in life. You are only blessed in life because of faith. It is by faith that you and I walk in the blessing that God18:45 gave Abraham. Because if you follow the law, if you fail in 1, you fail in all. And law only brings curse, the Bible says in Galatians. But Christ redeemed us from the curse18:57 so that we can walk in the blessing that God promised Abraham. Hallelujah. So we are blessed by faith. Thirdly, the writer to the Hebrews says this, Hebrews chapter 10 and19:09 look at verse 36, For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised. He begins by talking19:21 about endurance. Why is he speaking about endurance? See, the book of Hebrews is written to the Jewish people. And he says the Jews trust in the19:32 Mosaic Law, the Aaronic priesthood, and the sacrificial system that God instituted through Moses. The Jews believe19:45 in these things. They do these things. They trust themselves in these things. But the writer to the Hebrews says, now we have a new covenant with Christ as our chief high priest, under19:56 the order of Melchizedek, with a 1 sacrifice for all time, for all sin. So now you no longer need to go back to the Old Testament20:08 sacrificial system, but you now trust in the sacrifice of God's Son once and for all, and you will be saved. Now, those who believed in20:19 Jesus, they were persecuted during the time of Hebrews. So the writer to Hebrews tell the persecuted church that you should20:31 endure. You have need of endurance, so that once you have done the will of God, you will receive what is promised. But there are some who can't take the testing, the20:43 trials, the tears. There are some who can't take the tribulation, the persecution. So what do they do? They leave Christianity, and they go back to Judaistic way of20:55 life, trusting in the sacrificial system of Moses and the Aaronic priesthood. And for them, the Lord says this in verse 37, yet a little while and21:07 the coming 1 will come and will not delay. But my righteous 1 shall live by faith. And if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who shrink back and are21:18 destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls. I want you to listen to me carefully. We are not the ones who shrink back. We are the ones who21:30 believe in Jesus. We're the ones who endure the persecution. Why? Because we are people of faith. We endure by faith.21:42 That's why chapter 11 is a Hall of Fame for Faith, isn't it? It's a Hall of Fame of Faith chapter. But this faith chapter, he gives you the examples of21:54 people who endured persecution, people who endured dark and difficult days, people who had to make the choice between following God and following the world, denying the world and following God.22:06 And that they did gladly. Why? Because they saw the eternal promise of God. That's why in chapter 11 and verse 6, he goes on to say, without faith, is impossible22:18 to please God for whoever would draw near to God, but must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. And what is faith? Faith is verse 1. Verse 1, he says, it's the assurance of things hoped for, the22:30 conviction of things not yet seen. So he says, I believe that God has a promise for me. I believe God's promises will come to pass in my life. The vision is for an appointed time. So in the meantime, I will just22:42 endure by faith. He gives you examples in chapter 11. Then in chapter 12, verse 1, he says, let us run with endurance, the race that is set before us. And then he gives22:54 an example of Jesus in chapter 12 and verse 2, looking to Jesus, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. And look at verse 3, he says, consider Jesus23:06 who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or faint hearted. What is he saying? He says that you and I need to23:17 endure. Look at the example of Jesus. Look at the examples from the Old Testament. They all endured persecution, trials, testings, and tribulations.23:29 And therefore, they endured it by faith. So what was God saying to Habakkuk? Habakkuk, I want to give you the secret to surviving dark and difficult days.23:41 This is how you do it. Hold on to the promises of God, believe it. And then he declares, the righteous shall live by faith. See, you and I, we need to recognize that23:53 our God is a good God. Even when he allows certain difficult things in our lives, it is not to destroy us, but to develop us. I want you to24:05 recognize this. See, Habakkuk doesn't know what it would be like when the Babylonians come and take the Judah into captivity. He can only imagine24:17 he hasn't lived through it. But now he's prophetically seeing what it would be like. And he's saying, Lord, how will we be? And God says, by faith, you'll be fine. See, you and I, we need to24:29 hold on to the promises of God. During the time of Habakkuk, there was another prophet, Jeremiah. And Jeremiah prophesied about the captivity of Judah in Babylon during that24:41 same period. And this is what God says to the people of Judah through Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter 24 and verses 4 to 6. And I want to read this in the New King24:53 James version, because there's a particular phrasing I want you to listen to me carefully. Look at this. Again, the word of the Lord came to me saying, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel,25:05 like these good figs, so will I acknowledge those who are carried away captive from Judah, whom I have sent out. It is God who says I have sent them out of this place for25:17 their own good into the land of the Chaldeans. I want you to catch that phrase, church. It is for their good I'm sending them out of this place to the land of25:28 Chaldeans. Verse 6, for I will set my eyes on them for good, and I'll bring them back to this land. I will build them and not pull them down. I will plant them and not pluck them25:40 up. I want you to listen to me carefully. No matter how dark the days are, you have to trust in the promises of God. You got to trust in the goodness of God, that our God is a good God, and he will25:52 only do good in your life. Here he says, for their good, I will do this. And I'm setting my eyes on them for good. I'm watching over them that they26:04 will be built up. Hallelujah. The third thing we need to hold on to is the reality of God's wrath. See the question that Habakkuk brought before God.26:16 Will you deal with the wicked? Will you judge the wicked for their wickedness? And God says, yes, I will. So from verse 5 all the way to verse 19,26:28 God brings a picture, a prophetic picture of how he will deal with the Babylonians for their wickedness. 5 times in this text, you will read this 1 word,26:39 woe, w o e. Now, woe is not a great word. It's a word that represents curse. It's the opposite of blessedness. So please never use26:51 that word woe. Wow is fine. But woe is w o e is a curse. 5 times, repressing 5 key27:02 sins that the Babylonians did. Look at this. The first sin that God condemns is the word ambition. They're ruthless plunderings. Look at verse 6. Verse 627:14 says, woe to him who heaps up what is not his own. And look at verse 8, because you have plundered many nations. See, what the Babylonians did is27:26 they plundered the nations. They gathered wealth for themselves because of their ambition. They wanted to hog glory. They wanted to go after every nation. Doesn't matter whether they are27:38 large nation or a small nation like Judah. They wanted to crush them and plunder those nations. And God says, how deal with them for their ambition and for their ruthless27:49 plunderings. The second thing he says is this greed with the dishonest gains. Look at this in verse 9, woe to him who gets evil gain for his house.28:01 I want you to circle that evil gain for his house. In other words, this is the person who through dishonest means accumulates wealth. He cheats here, he cheats there, he accumulates, he is28:13 not honest in his dealings. And the Bible says, Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house because of his greed. The third thing is cruelty, human oppression.28:26 Look at verse 12, Woe to him who builds a town with blood and founds a city on iniquity. God was saying, I will deal with the bloodshed. You built28:37 your city on the blood of people. In other words, they were slave laborers. Those people that he took on as captives, they were slaving away, building the the massive28:49 buildings in Babylon. You know, Nebuchadnezzar had hanging gardens and beautiful palaces. They were all built on the backs of slaves. And here God says, you built a town29:01 with blood and found a city on iniquity, and I'm gonna judge it. It is human oppression. It's the cruelty that you do to another human being. The next thing that God deals29:13 with is debauchery, the inhumane deeds done to another human being. Look at this in verse 15. He says, Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink and pour out your wrath and make them drunk in order to29:24 gaze at their nakedness. This is how the Babylonians treated their captives. Babylonians are known for their drunkenness. They are drunkards.29:36 They will cause the captives to drink. And and when they are drunk, they will cost them to walk around naked, and as a result, there will be sexual acts that will be performed.29:48 And God says, for this I will judge you. And lastly, futile idolatry. In verse 19, he says, woe to him who says to a wooden thing, awake. Look at verse30:00 18. He says, what profit is an idol when its maker has shaped it? A metal image, a teacher of lies. For its maker trusts in its own creation when he makes speechless30:12 idols. He says, you trust in idolatry. You bow down to idols. As a result, I'm gonna judge you for your idolatry. Now, these are the 5 times when the word woe30:24 appears, and these are the 5 things that God says I'm gonna judge them for. But I wanna bring it to an irreducible minimum in application for us. There are 2 sins I see in particular30:35 that I believe applies to you and me. It starts in verse 5, and the second 1 is in verse 18. In verse 5, it says that the Babylonians are arrogant men.30:48 They are proud men. And in verse 4, it says that they are not upright, they are proud and puffed up. See, this is the thing that God abhors. It is the pride31:00 in human heart. And this pride leads them to be self sufficient. They are rebellious against God. They don't want to submit to God. They don't want to take God's word. They don't want to follow31:12 it. As a result, what God does is he judges them. Do you suffer from pride? Pride is 1 sin that you and I are sometimes31:23 oblivious to it. What is the sign of pride? Pride means that I don't need God. The throne of my heart belongs to me. At the same time, it31:35 is also self glorification. Look at in verse 16, it talks about them seeking glory, clothing themselves with glory and honor. In other words, what is rightfully belongs to God? They31:47 hog the glory. And this is something that God hates. The second thing is in verse 18. What profit do you have in worshiping an idol? Now you and I, we31:58 may say, don't worship any idols. But if you carefully examine, there are idols in our heart. Sometimes our family can be an idol. Our marriage can be an idol. Our children's32:10 careers and their future could be an idol. Our net worth could be an idol. All the places where we live can be an idol. The places where we work can be an idol. Sometimes we32:22 place unnecessary importance and worship to all these things that should be attributed only to God. And the Lord says, those idols, those idol worship,32:34 I will judge. So can I humbly bring this to an application of principle for you and me? We need to hold on to the ways of God. We need to walk in it. See, you need to know that32:46 God will judge sin. Sin will not go unpunished. God will deal with sin thoroughly 1 day. So today is the day for repentance. Today is the day for you to turn around and walk in the32:58 ways of God. So walk in holiness, walk in separation, walk in counter cultural way of life. Galatians chapter 6, the Bible says in verse 7 to verse33:09 9, do not be deceived, God is not mocked. For whatever 1 sows, that is what he will reap. Look at verse 8, for the 1 who sows to his own flesh will33:21 reap from the flesh corruption. But the 1 who sows to the spirit will from the spirit reap eternal life. See, you and I, we need to recognize that you are sowing. Even in33:33 the dark and difficult days, you are sowing. But don't sow in your flesh. Because the Bible says if you sow in your flesh, and the works of the flesh are sinful things, lustful33:45 things, and the Bible says you will reap corruption. In other words, the judgment of God will come. But if you sow in the spirit, the Bible says you will reap eternal life. So how do33:57 you handle dark and difficult days? Keep sowing the good seeds. Verse 9 says, let us not grow weary in doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not34:09 give up. And God says to you and I, don't give up. Sow the seeds. Stay faithful even in the midst of dark and difficult days. The fourth truth34:21 that we must hold on to, the reign of God's son. You know, from verse 5 to verse 19, we saw how God is going to judge the Babylonians, the wickedness.34:33 But at the same time, in verse 14, God gives a ray of hope. He declares something prophetic. And towards the end of the prophecy in verse 20, he34:45 again gives another hope. And I want you to read verse 20 with me. But the Lord is in his holy temple, let all the earth keep silence before him. In the midst of34:57 all that is going on, God says, I want you to see that the Lord is in the holy temple, and let all the earth remain silent before him. See, this is where God wants you to35:09 catch the picture of the sovereignty of God. Habakkuk is wondering, Lord, why would you raise the Chaldeans to crush Judah? What would you do to the Chaldeans?35:21 Will we even survive? And God says, you will survive. The righteous will live by faith. The Chaldeans will be destroyed for their wickedness. And God was showing to him that I'm35:33 sovereign over everything. See, the seat of power is not in Washington. It's not in Canberra. It's not in any earthly city. It's not with the UN. The seat35:45 of power is with God. He's the 1 who holds the destiny of nations. He's the 1 who raises 1, and he's the 1 who demotes the other. I want you to listen to me carefully. Your God is a35:56 sovereign God. You know, the in the year King Uzziah died, Isaiah had a vision. Isaiah was weeping for the lost king, the king who died. He loved the king and36:08 the king died. And Isaiah goes into the temple of God and suddenly his eyes open. In verse 1, he declares, In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up and36:20 the train of his robe filled the temple. What was he saying? He was saying this, The earthly king is dead, but the heavenly king is still alive. He's still on the throne. The throne here36:32 on earth is empty, but the throne in heaven is occupied. In other words, God is on his throne. And the moment you recognize the sovereignty of God, that God is bringing about his36:44 purposes through the evil of men, through the evil plans of men, God is accomplishing his divine plan. That's why I want you to hold on to this truth. History is his story.36:57 What you what you see unfold in history is a story. And history is under divine control. See, God doesn't create evil, but he controls evil to bring about his37:08 purposes. And history is certainly under divine control. Because history follows a divine plan. God has a plan right from the book of Genesis, all the way to the37:20 book, the end of the book in Revelation. God is working out his divine plan on planet Earth. And thirdly, history is tied to his divine kingdom.37:33 What is God doing? God is bringing his kingdom to this world. And I want you to listen to me. 1 day, this kingdom of this world will be declared as the kingdom of37:44 God. Hallelujah. Look at in verse 14. That's the second ray of hope from this passage. He says, For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the water covers the37:56 sea. See, this is a prophetic vision, but this did not take place during the time of Habakkuk. This hasn't even been fulfilled during your lifetime and my lifetime.38:08 This will only be fulfilled when Jesus returns back to the earth, has 1000 year rule, and after that, he establishes38:19 God's kingdom by establishing new heaven and new earth. And in that new earth, the Bible says, will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the water covers the sea. So38:31 I want you to listen to me carefully. This has a prophetic timetable that is beyond Habakkuk's lifetime. That is even beyond what we are going through today. But I want you to listen to me. The38:43 reason why God was saying these things is because when you're going through dark and difficult days, you need to hold on to the hope of Jesus's return. You need to believe38:55 that Jesus is coming again soon. 2000 years have passed since Jesus ascended into heaven. But the Bible says he's coming again anytime. And the only39:07 reason why he hasn't come come back yet is because he wants the church to prepare for it. He wants the church to proclaim the good news to people so that they will be saved. They will be added into the39:19 kingdom of God. That's why you and I have an opportunity right now to proclaim the gospel. We prepare ourselves for the coming gospel of Jesus Christ to theShow more In this video 0:00 The Secret to Surviving Dark Days
Paul Jeyachandran
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