WEBVTT 00:00:00.280 --> 00:00:08.500 Habakkuk is a book of the Bible I think is significant, for it's a simplistic book and what it writes, but significant 00:00:08.500 --> 00:00:11.830 for what it teaches in the values of who God is. 00:00:13.660 --> 00:00:18.700 Habakkuk is a book that takes the theology of God, and it meets the practical application of life. 00:00:20.200 --> 00:00:27.540 Sometimes within church today, we are very quick to jump to the practical application of how things relate to us, and sometimes slow 00:00:27.540 --> 00:00:33.820 at looking at the theological backdrops that help us make the practical application to life. 00:00:33.960 --> 00:00:36.360 And I would say for us as believers, both are important. 00:00:36.860 --> 00:00:39.320 It's important to understand what God desires for us to do. 00:00:39.440 --> 00:00:46.500 But before we can really understand what God desires for us as people and who we are as people, it all originates in the identity of 00:00:46.500 --> 00:00:47.120 who God is. 00:00:47.220 --> 00:00:51.430 And so your theology should always drive your practical application. 00:00:52.560 --> 00:00:59.580 Now, I'm going to tell you, when it comes to the book of Habakkuk, I'm going to go out on a limb and say, probably, most of us have not 00:00:59.580 --> 00:01:01.920 ever heard a sermon series from the book of Habakkuk. 00:01:02.160 --> 00:01:05.900 By the way, if you're looking for it, go to Matthew and turn back five books into the Old Testament. 00:01:06.960 --> 00:01:11.360 Habakkuk is not one of those books where you're like, man, you know what I you know, I'm really looking for a book right now that would meet this need. 00:01:11.400 --> 00:01:13.720 And then on top of your head, you're like, I got it. 00:01:13.760 --> 00:01:14.540 It's Habakkuk. 00:01:14.540 --> 00:01:14.740 Right. 00:01:14.900 --> 00:01:18.980 So I'm going to tell you this morning as we go through this book, this is just because we've gone through this book. 00:01:19.180 --> 00:01:21.880 This isn't a book that I would say now recommend this to all your friends. 00:01:22.300 --> 00:01:22.520 Okay. 00:01:22.820 --> 00:01:25.090 There's a few things that I want to achieve to the book of Habakkuk. 00:01:25.320 --> 00:01:32.500 But the predominant thing that I want to say for us is that Habakkuk, helps us understand how the practical 00:01:32.540 --> 00:01:37.860 outworkings of who God is seen through the identity of our God and what that means. 00:01:38.100 --> 00:01:41.860 And so we're connecting the theological with the practical. 00:01:42.980 --> 00:01:50.160 And I want to take just this first chapter that we're going to look at today and help us paint a backdrop to what it means to study 00:01:50.160 --> 00:01:51.380 a book of the Bible. 00:01:52.360 --> 00:01:56.990 Here at ABC, we do a few types of teaching on Sunday mornings. 00:01:57.420 --> 00:02:00.320 we do uh, we do topical series. 00:02:00.700 --> 00:02:06.140 We do, we focus just on scriptural passages or we'll do expository teaching. 00:02:06.140 --> 00:02:13.180 And this morning, this is what we'll call what we call expository teaching, where we work through systematically through a book of the Bible to understand why 00:02:13.180 --> 00:02:20.200 that book was written, and to really understand why a book is written and how to apply 00:02:20.200 --> 00:02:21.000 it to our lives. 00:02:22.020 --> 00:02:25.980 context is everything, right? 00:02:26.040 --> 00:02:32.120 Meaning there is a principle within Scripture when you open up the Bible and you want to study it for yourselves, there's a word that we use a bigger word. 00:02:32.160 --> 00:02:36.600 It's called hermeneutics, which is basically the interpretation and application of what the Bible is about. 00:02:37.480 --> 00:02:44.480 But when you study the Bible for yourself and you're trying to glean from it some truths that the Lord wants you to understand, there's an important idea to always carry with you in 00:02:44.480 --> 00:02:46.370 every portion of Scripture that you study. 00:02:46.380 --> 00:02:53.580 And that is this, book of the Bible or a text of Scripture can never mean more to you than it was intended to mean to the original 00:02:53.580 --> 00:02:54.950 audience in which it was written. 00:02:56.580 --> 00:03:04.080 God writes every book of the Bible, every passage of Scripture from an author to a particular people group for a specific reason, 00:03:05.340 --> 00:03:12.800 and understand how God would want us to apply that passage to our lives, requires us to understand what 00:03:12.800 --> 00:03:15.640 it meant to the original audience in which it was written. 00:03:16.780 --> 00:03:23.980 And so when you dive into the book of Habakkuk, I think contextualization not only helps us understand what the Bible says, but really it magnifies the beauty of 00:03:23.980 --> 00:03:25.840 the position of Scripture when we get to understand it. 00:03:25.960 --> 00:03:32.920 It is, I think, crucial to anyone who studies the Bible to always begin to ask the question, why was it written? 00:03:34.080 --> 00:03:41.400 And take a little bit of time to get the backdrop to the picture that the author is trying to create to the audience he was originally 00:03:41.400 --> 00:03:42.370 writing to. 00:03:43.280 --> 00:03:44.590 And such is the case for Habakkuk. 00:03:46.440 --> 00:03:48.360 The name Habakkuk means embrace. 00:03:50.420 --> 00:03:52.130 I think this book is a struggle. 00:03:52.320 --> 00:03:54.010 It's sort of like a written, like a mini job. 00:03:54.220 --> 00:03:57.400 It's a struggle of an individual, a godly individual. 00:03:57.540 --> 00:04:03.340 The Bible tells us he is a prophet who is who is wrestling with his position and his people before God. 00:04:04.280 --> 00:04:06.020 He can't quite understand how God is working. 00:04:06.020 --> 00:04:13.480 He's going through some adversity and he's coming to God with some questions asking the question why the theme of this series should really be waiting 00:04:13.480 --> 00:04:16.529 on God if you broke it down categorically. 00:04:17.000 --> 00:04:19.860 According to chapters, chapter one would be about Habakkuk's worry. 00:04:19.860 --> 00:04:24.030 Chapter two would be about Habakkuk waiting, in chapter three would be about Habakkuk worshiping. 00:04:25.320 --> 00:04:31.780 And the reason that Habakkuk is waiting and worrying before God is where the people of Israel have currently found themselves. 00:04:32.920 --> 00:04:40.100 If you've never really felt like you've grasped an understanding of the Old Testament, let me let me just paint the picture and I'll show you how Habakkuk fits contextually 00:04:40.100 --> 00:04:42.400 into what has happened in historically in the nation of Israel. 00:04:43.760 --> 00:04:44.380 Genesis chapter one. 00:04:44.680 --> 00:04:46.860 The Bible gives us a story of God making the earth. 00:04:47.840 --> 00:04:52.260 By chapter three, humanity created in God's image for relationship with God has fallen. 00:04:52.320 --> 00:04:53.090 We have sinned. 00:04:53.100 --> 00:04:55.200 We have separated ourselves from God. 00:04:55.200 --> 00:04:57.530 And in chapter three, God also gives his plan of redemption. 00:04:58.060 --> 00:04:59.240 God is pursuing man. 00:05:00.460 --> 00:05:04.130 By Genesis chapter 12, we begin with the story of this man named Abraham. 00:05:04.400 --> 00:05:07.580 This is the individual that God said through him, all nations of the earth would be blessed. 00:05:07.980 --> 00:05:12.420 The Messiah who was to come now has been identified as going to be coming through the seed of Abraham. 00:05:14.440 --> 00:05:15.260 Genesis chapter one. 00:05:15.280 --> 00:05:22.240 The chapter 12 covers a sweep of history thousands of years within, within the context of just 12 chapters. 00:05:22.600 --> 00:05:29.740 Why the purpose of Scripture up to Abraham in Genesis chapter 12 isn't to explain every detail of human history. 00:05:30.860 --> 00:05:35.550 The primary purpose for the first 12 chapters are simply to give us a backdrop of where did I come from? 00:05:35.900 --> 00:05:36.650 And where are we going? 00:05:38.180 --> 00:05:43.260 And through the life of Abraham, we have identified for us that Jesus would come forth from him. 00:05:43.280 --> 00:05:46.880 The Messiah would come through the rest of the book of Genesis. 00:05:47.040 --> 00:05:54.340 You have the context for the patriarchs, which would lay the foundation for the nation of Israel from which the Messiah would come Abraham, Isaac, 00:05:54.760 --> 00:05:55.540 Jacob, Joseph. 00:05:56.520 --> 00:06:03.680 Joseph gives us a story into the land of Egypt, where Exodus, the book of Exodus, picks up, where Moses then leads the nation 00:06:03.680 --> 00:06:05.220 of Israel out of Egypt. 00:06:05.440 --> 00:06:10.840 Is how we see the nation of Israel beginning to be formed where the people came from. 00:06:11.840 --> 00:06:18.960 As Moses journeys from Egypt into the Promised Land, the books that he writes, the book of Genesis, really, but Exodus, Leviticus, 00:06:19.080 --> 00:06:27.480 numbers and Deuteronomy give us the customs that help develop the identity of what this people group was about writing 00:06:27.480 --> 00:06:34.760 of the law and the worship ceremonies and what developed them in their identity as individuals when they get into the promised 00:06:34.760 --> 00:06:35.100 Land. 00:06:35.240 --> 00:06:40.140 You have the book of Joshua, Judges and Ruth that share with us how they settle in the land and what occurs. 00:06:41.620 --> 00:06:42.800 And then for Samuel. 00:06:44.760 --> 00:06:46.020 First and second Samuel. 00:06:46.280 --> 00:06:47.420 First and second Kings. 00:06:47.780 --> 00:06:48.880 First and second Chronicles. 00:06:50.320 --> 00:06:51.940 And throughout the rest of the Old Testament. 00:06:52.240 --> 00:06:52.460 Really? 00:06:53.520 --> 00:07:00.540 You see a king appointed King Saul, followed by King David, which God then identifies Israel to Israel, that 00:07:00.540 --> 00:07:05.380 the Messiah would come through King David and through the rest of the Old Testament. 00:07:05.500 --> 00:07:12.560 From first Samuel on, you see the rise and the fall of a nation eventually taken into captivity and finally returning 00:07:12.560 --> 00:07:15.080 again before God goes silent into the New Testament. 00:07:17.160 --> 00:07:24.320 The books of Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther record for us the return of the nation of Israel as they are returning from captivity, having 00:07:24.320 --> 00:07:31.400 risen as a nation and seeing the increase of a nation under Saul, David, and kings to follow to the fall of the 00:07:31.400 --> 00:07:33.620 nation, and then the return and Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther. 00:07:35.020 --> 00:07:37.130 Your Old Testament is not put together chronologically. 00:07:38.060 --> 00:07:39.940 It's put together categorically. 00:07:41.360 --> 00:07:48.260 It's the historical books throughout the first 12 books of the Old Testament, followed by your poetic books and your prophetic books. 00:07:50.480 --> 00:07:53.200 The nation of Israel throughout their The Rise and Fall. 00:07:53.280 --> 00:07:57.740 What we find right after King David's King Solomon followed after King Solomon is Rehoboam and Jeroboam. 00:07:58.220 --> 00:08:00.040 There's a civil war that splits the nation. 00:08:00.040 --> 00:08:03.920 Ten tribes go to the north and two tribes go to the south. 00:08:03.960 --> 00:08:09.460 These two tribes, or these groups, as they split the north, is often referred to as Israel or Ephraim. 00:08:09.720 --> 00:08:11.240 The south is often referred to as Judah. 00:08:13.960 --> 00:08:14.590 In this division. 00:08:16.780 --> 00:08:21.020 The historical books tell us that the northern tribes of Israel never have a godly king. 00:08:22.740 --> 00:08:26.850 Eventually carried off into captivity in 722 BC by the Assyrians. 00:08:28.100 --> 00:08:35.120 If you follow the world powers during the time of Israel, you see Egypt over the time of Moses, followed by the 00:08:35.120 --> 00:08:38.360 Assyrians, who take the northern tribes of Israel captive. 00:08:38.640 --> 00:08:42.460 Eventually it leads to the Babylonians, who will take the southern tribes of Israel captive. 00:08:43.600 --> 00:08:49.520 And then and then we have following that the Persians, and then the Greeks and the Romans during the time of Jesus. 00:08:52.140 --> 00:08:54.220 Habakkuk is written. 00:08:55.700 --> 00:08:58.760 After the northern tribes of Israel are taken into captivity. 00:09:00.660 --> 00:09:05.200 In fact, when Habakkuk writes his book The Southern Tribes Judah. 00:09:07.120 --> 00:09:09.260 As also staring down captivity. 00:09:10.760 --> 00:09:12.950 The Babylonians have grown into a great nation. 00:09:14.760 --> 00:09:18.300 And God is going to use the Babylonians to take Israel. 00:09:20.460 --> 00:09:21.880 Habakkuk writes his book. 00:09:23.100 --> 00:09:26.560 And the 600 B C's into the 500 B C's. 00:09:27.520 --> 00:09:31.020 Israel is seized upon by the Babylonians starting in 606. 00:09:31.200 --> 00:09:33.300 That lasts all the way down to about 586. 00:09:35.260 --> 00:09:41.880 And Habakkuk is writing to the nation of Israel is really an open dialogue between He and God. 00:09:41.920 --> 00:09:45.350 He's writing at the same time as the book of Jeremiah. 00:09:45.640 --> 00:09:52.610 He's just following the book of Zephaniah, and Nahum and Ezekiel and Daniel will follow after her back. 00:09:54.440 --> 00:09:55.140 Habakkuk. 00:09:56.820 --> 00:09:59.560 Is worrying before God. 00:10:00.120 --> 00:10:03.910 If I if I said to ask, the theme of Habakkuk is waiting on the Lord. 00:10:03.920 --> 00:10:11.380 If I gave it more of a of a practical explanation to us, knowing what Habakkuk is going through in this world, I think the theologian 00:10:11.380 --> 00:10:16.860 Mike Tyson said it best, which when he said, everyone has a plan till you get punched in the face, right. 00:10:17.940 --> 00:10:19.480 You kind of got things figured out. 00:10:19.500 --> 00:10:22.800 But there comes a time in your life where you just get rocked so deeply. 00:10:23.020 --> 00:10:26.720 You're just trying to reorient yourself to understand how things should work out. 00:10:27.760 --> 00:10:29.260 And that's where Habakkuk finds himself. 00:10:31.900 --> 00:10:32.300 Under. 00:10:33.720 --> 00:10:34.300 Poor leadership. 00:10:36.100 --> 00:10:38.360 Ungodly kings. 00:10:39.600 --> 00:10:44.710 In fact, the nation of Israel has just recently experienced the death of Josiah. 00:10:46.620 --> 00:10:49.720 And Josiah is sort of a unique story for the for the nation of Israel. 00:10:49.760 --> 00:10:54.210 He was appointed king at eight years old. 00:10:55.380 --> 00:11:03.120 I don't know if you've hung around that age group much recently, but I could think maybe, 00:11:03.400 --> 00:11:09.400 maybe today if one of my children led, it would be nothing but Happy Meals and video games, right? 00:11:11.420 --> 00:11:13.800 Josiah rules the nation at eight years old. 00:11:13.940 --> 00:11:17.400 The story goes on that Josiah as he grows of age. 00:11:17.480 --> 00:11:22.820 Eventually Josiah he starts to rip down the pagan worship that's taking place in the nation of Israel. 00:11:23.180 --> 00:11:30.360 They find the Bible, the Old Testament, during during uh, Josiah's reign, they had gotten 00:11:30.360 --> 00:11:37.540 so wicked as a people group that the book that God had given them to direct them, from which they had established their identity, everyone 00:11:37.540 --> 00:11:38.860 had long since forgotten it. 00:11:40.360 --> 00:11:44.570 And Josiah finds this book and he brings it back to the nation of Israel. 00:11:45.240 --> 00:11:48.040 And Israel is starting to pursue God again. 00:11:48.080 --> 00:11:54.080 But there's they're not completely sold over to the Lord yet, but Josiah is pushing them that way. 00:11:54.100 --> 00:11:59.580 And the Bible tells us that the Josiah goes into battle against the nation of Egypt, and he loses his life. 00:12:02.560 --> 00:12:04.380 And then as children begin to rule and reign. 00:12:05.980 --> 00:12:06.460 Jehoahaz. 00:12:07.780 --> 00:12:08.220 Jehoiakim. 00:12:10.880 --> 00:12:12.710 And they continue to pursue. 00:12:13.920 --> 00:12:16.390 The false gods that the nation of Israel had once worshiped. 00:12:17.880 --> 00:12:22.920 Before Josiah began to appoint people back to God. 00:12:23.080 --> 00:12:24.390 And Habakkuk in that context. 00:12:26.360 --> 00:12:27.240 Opens his book. 00:12:29.380 --> 00:12:33.400 He says this the oracles which Habakkuk, the prophets prophet, saw. 00:12:35.160 --> 00:12:37.080 How long, O Lord, will I call for help? 00:12:37.240 --> 00:12:38.020 And you will not hear. 00:12:39.360 --> 00:12:40.300 I cry out to you. 00:12:40.300 --> 00:12:40.800 Violence. 00:12:40.800 --> 00:12:41.690 Yet you do not save. 00:12:43.180 --> 00:12:47.160 Why do you make me see iniquity and cause me to look on wickedness? 00:12:48.440 --> 00:12:50.860 Yet destruction and violence are before me. 00:12:50.860 --> 00:12:52.920 Strife exists and contention arises. 00:12:53.160 --> 00:12:56.060 Therefore the law is ignored and justice is never upheld. 00:12:56.200 --> 00:12:57.560 For the wicked surround the righteous. 00:12:58.080 --> 00:12:59.760 Therefore justice comes out perverted. 00:13:03.180 --> 00:13:10.280 Looking at the nation, he no doubt sees the decline and he's acknowledging before God this ungodly or bad leadership that's that is 00:13:10.300 --> 00:13:11.040 above him. 00:13:11.060 --> 00:13:15.490 And he's having this struggle and this open dialogue before the Lord. 00:13:16.060 --> 00:13:18.300 And this is pretty rare for a prophet to write about. 00:13:19.660 --> 00:13:26.220 In fact, most prophetic books are prophets representing God to the people. 00:13:27.540 --> 00:13:34.580 And here, sort of in a reverse sense, Habakkuk identifying himself more with a people is representing the people before God. 00:13:34.800 --> 00:13:36.610 And he's having this open dialogue. 00:13:36.700 --> 00:13:41.780 Now, we know the course that this story will go because it starts with worry ends and waiting and followed by worship. 00:13:43.120 --> 00:13:46.820 And this book starts on sort of a lull for us this morning. 00:13:46.820 --> 00:13:50.240 So I want to tell you, there's not going to be a lot of emotional high energy to end for us today. 00:13:50.600 --> 00:13:57.800 But he lays the backdrop to understanding what brings us as people into worship, into the presence of God, as we wrestle and 00:13:57.800 --> 00:14:02.460 struggle with certain aspects of life and the adversity in which we face. 00:14:02.620 --> 00:14:07.230 But what Habakkuk begins with acknowledging is that he is under bad leadership. 00:14:07.320 --> 00:14:09.280 And so what Habakkuk is seeking now. 00:14:11.340 --> 00:14:12.800 Is God's leadership. 00:14:14.930 --> 00:14:16.640 See within the nation of Israel. 00:14:18.580 --> 00:14:20.020 Prophetically, they know. 00:14:21.520 --> 00:14:23.900 The Messiah was to come. 00:14:25.740 --> 00:14:26.840 The people of Israel. 00:14:26.940 --> 00:14:30.060 What they long for within their lives was shalom. 00:14:31.600 --> 00:14:33.160 Genesis chapter three. 00:14:33.160 --> 00:14:38.560 The Bible tells us that mankind was experiencing shalom with God, which is which is peace with God. 00:14:39.800 --> 00:14:42.540 And within, as sin comes into the world, it corrupts the world. 00:14:42.540 --> 00:14:45.600 There is destruction now, and that shalom, that peace is gone. 00:14:45.900 --> 00:14:53.220 And so the rest of the Bible from Genesis three all the way to the end, revelation 20 to 21 is God 00:14:53.220 --> 00:14:58.480 restoring the shalom in which we lost through a peaceful relationship in him? 00:14:58.480 --> 00:15:03.620 God pursuing us in relationship with him, that we may enjoy the peace of his presence forever. 00:15:04.980 --> 00:15:06.010 What was lost. 00:15:06.100 --> 00:15:08.940 God restores Habakkuk in these moments. 00:15:08.940 --> 00:15:10.700 Longing for shalom. 00:15:13.160 --> 00:15:14.210 I want to tell you when it comes to. 00:15:16.460 --> 00:15:17.420 Understanding scripture. 00:15:17.460 --> 00:15:19.100 Not only is context important. 00:15:20.820 --> 00:15:21.840 But so is literary style. 00:15:24.080 --> 00:15:32.100 If you look at the book of Habakkuk within your own Bible, likely you'll note that the way that the book of Habakkuk is printed 00:15:32.140 --> 00:15:36.700 within your Scripture, it's sort of indented, different than maybe other passages of the Bible. 00:15:37.820 --> 00:15:43.240 And that's to acknowledge before us that what Habakkuk is doing, he's likely either writing poetry or a song. 00:15:43.520 --> 00:15:46.340 And I think in Habakkuk's case, he's writing for us a song. 00:15:47.860 --> 00:15:51.460 If I were to categorize what type of song this is, let me let me say this. 00:15:51.460 --> 00:15:54.760 Habakkuk is more than likely a musician writing this song. 00:15:54.960 --> 00:16:02.130 But if I were to categorize what type of song this is and God forgive me for saying this because it's going to help you remember it, but he's writing a country song. 00:16:04.070 --> 00:16:05.630 See, some of you are like, God forgive you. 00:16:05.880 --> 00:16:08.520 Only God writes country music, right? 00:16:08.900 --> 00:16:11.480 I mean, you ever heard Randy Travis three wooden crosses? 00:16:12.260 --> 00:16:15.580 I mean, Garth Brooks sings Unanswered Prayers, for Pete's sake, right? 00:16:16.100 --> 00:16:16.530 And then others. 00:16:16.800 --> 00:16:19.140 I'll look at you and I'm like country music. 00:16:19.280 --> 00:16:22.260 And you're like, it's not country. 00:16:22.380 --> 00:16:24.330 Now, I knew I didn't like her backing for a reason. 00:16:24.920 --> 00:16:26.300 It's polarizing, isn't it? 00:16:26.300 --> 00:16:33.780 Well, in the sake of Habakkuk, for the sake of Habakkuk, let's say God writes country music, right? 00:16:33.880 --> 00:16:41.040 And here's how I mean, you think of any time something that's any type of genre that writes a song that just cries out 00:16:41.040 --> 00:16:43.080 the best, right? 00:16:43.080 --> 00:16:47.360 I mean, my dog died, my truck broke down and my wife left me. 00:16:48.300 --> 00:16:49.160 That is country music. 00:16:51.720 --> 00:16:52.920 Or not. 00:16:53.920 --> 00:16:55.900 Have I offended everyone yet? 00:16:57.900 --> 00:17:01.470 What Habakkuk writes, what the Bible wants you to recognize is in the book of Habakkuk. 00:17:01.780 --> 00:17:09.160 This indentation is this poetic song in which Habakkuk is expressing to God the way that he feels. 00:17:10.140 --> 00:17:11.260 Songs are good at that, aren't they? 00:17:13.040 --> 00:17:20.400 You know, I look even in the book of Genesis when Adam meets Eve, the first thing Adam does, the first words Adam speaks 00:17:20.400 --> 00:17:21.940 in the beginning of the Bible. 00:17:22.740 --> 00:17:23.260 It's a song. 00:17:24.819 --> 00:17:25.800 He sings to Eve. 00:17:27.520 --> 00:17:32.180 Entire books of the Bible are dedicated to songs the Song of Solomon. 00:17:33.880 --> 00:17:34.600 The Book of Psalms. 00:17:37.020 --> 00:17:44.140 Nation of Israel going through particular experiences of victory or hardship, they would tend to put those moments 00:17:44.140 --> 00:17:44.860 into songs. 00:17:46.800 --> 00:17:49.820 Then Habakkuk writes two country songs. 00:17:51.680 --> 00:17:52.600 Songs of lament. 00:17:54.140 --> 00:17:55.110 Songs of an expression. 00:17:55.440 --> 00:17:57.350 From his heart and where he is. 00:17:58.940 --> 00:18:01.580 And what this is saying to us as he is enduring this, is this. 00:18:01.780 --> 00:18:07.800 This just isn't a pushover moment that he's experiencing, and it's just going to go away overnight. 00:18:07.900 --> 00:18:15.580 This is something that Habakkuk is, is has been poring over within his heart something that has grieved 00:18:15.580 --> 00:18:16.560 him deeply. 00:18:17.300 --> 00:18:18.560 So it's different than a Taylor Swift song. 00:18:18.800 --> 00:18:20.360 This is not just a bad breakup, right? 00:18:21.920 --> 00:18:24.110 I mean, this is like a Dixie chicks versus whoever. 00:18:24.760 --> 00:18:25.320 Who was that guy? 00:18:25.740 --> 00:18:26.260 Blond haired guy. 00:18:28.060 --> 00:18:29.880 Country singer, I don't know. 00:18:30.180 --> 00:18:31.220 They fought. 00:18:31.560 --> 00:18:33.480 This is a battle. 00:18:34.200 --> 00:18:41.580 This is a battle deep within in his soul of wrestling with a lament in what God is doing. 00:18:43.000 --> 00:18:43.960 And trying to understand it. 00:18:46.540 --> 00:18:47.360 He wants to know. 00:18:49.280 --> 00:18:50.000 God do I have hope? 00:18:52.240 --> 00:18:57.260 In verse two, when he starts off this text, the questions that he asks specifically. 00:18:59.520 --> 00:19:01.300 How long, O Lord, will I call for help? 00:19:01.400 --> 00:19:01.960 And you will not hear. 00:19:03.780 --> 00:19:08.560 And why do you make me see iniquity and cause me to look on wickedness? 00:19:09.720 --> 00:19:11.380 He's thinking about the situation he's in. 00:19:11.380 --> 00:19:13.380 And this is the question he wants to know is God, do you care? 00:19:16.340 --> 00:19:18.380 I mean, God, did I did I come to you in the midst of this hardship? 00:19:18.600 --> 00:19:20.120 And what, you're out to lunch or what? 00:19:20.180 --> 00:19:22.060 What moment in my life am I catching you here? 00:19:22.100 --> 00:19:26.400 God, do you even care about the adversity in which I'm facing? 00:19:27.080 --> 00:19:30.820 Lord, what I what I really want in these moments is just to experience shalom and God. 00:19:30.840 --> 00:19:33.460 What I really want to know about you in this hardship is God. 00:19:34.000 --> 00:19:35.130 Do you care? 00:19:35.240 --> 00:19:36.700 Are you going to wrestle God? 00:19:37.300 --> 00:19:40.560 Are you everything that you have promised the nation of Israel or God? 00:19:40.560 --> 00:19:42.060 Have you abandoned us? 00:19:42.160 --> 00:19:44.600 Do you care about me in these moments? 00:19:44.600 --> 00:19:47.980 How long, O God, will I call out for help and you will not hear? 00:19:48.280 --> 00:19:51.360 And why do you make me see iniquity and cause me to look on wickedness? 00:19:53.700 --> 00:19:55.490 God, do you care? 00:19:58.400 --> 00:20:02.970 God follows up this statement of Habakkuk with sort of a mind blowing thought. 00:20:05.080 --> 00:20:08.240 God says this in verse five in response to Habakkuk look among the nations. 00:20:09.640 --> 00:20:10.960 Observe and be astonished. 00:20:11.120 --> 00:20:15.900 Wonder, because I am doing something in your days you would not believe if you were told. 00:20:16.700 --> 00:20:23.830 For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that fierce and impetuous people who marched throughout the earth to seize dwelling places which are not theirs. 00:20:24.080 --> 00:20:25.280 They are dreaded and feared. 00:20:25.400 --> 00:20:28.460 Their justice and authority originate with themselves. 00:20:30.580 --> 00:20:33.920 So, Habakkuk, if you get this straight, goes before God and says, God, do you care? 00:20:35.340 --> 00:20:39.280 And now God comes to Habakkuk and said, oh, I'm sorry, you think this is bad? 00:20:42.280 --> 00:20:43.880 Someone's about to conquer you. 00:20:46.020 --> 00:20:53.320 Now, if you're looking at this question of black eggs asking before God and you're trying to reach a conclusion over what God is saying, 00:20:53.480 --> 00:20:57.340 I mean, you really only have two responses that you could come away with. 00:20:57.340 --> 00:21:02.520 And the most prominent response from God's statement is this. 00:21:02.660 --> 00:21:02.760 yeah. 00:21:03.540 --> 00:21:04.140 You don't care. 00:21:05.380 --> 00:21:06.740 Right. 00:21:06.860 --> 00:21:07.560 You don't care. 00:21:08.780 --> 00:21:10.800 Bad things are happening and you don't care. 00:21:11.020 --> 00:21:15.910 In fact, some people try to reach the conclusion with some of the adversity that they face in life. 00:21:16.180 --> 00:21:17.040 Bad things happen. 00:21:17.040 --> 00:21:24.560 Therefore, if there is a God that makes him a bad God because bad things happen in this world, I will say to you that according to Scripture isn't 00:21:24.560 --> 00:21:24.940 true. 00:21:26.760 --> 00:21:28.840 The Bible tells us that God is good, right? 00:21:30.480 --> 00:21:33.520 And so for the life of the believer or in Habakkuk. 00:21:35.780 --> 00:21:38.980 He's in this place where he's recognizing now, okay, if God is good. 00:21:41.340 --> 00:21:43.090 And yet circumstances are bad. 00:21:44.630 --> 00:21:45.320 How does that work? 00:21:47.840 --> 00:21:48.910 How does a good God exist? 00:21:50.720 --> 00:21:51.180 In an evil world. 00:21:53.780 --> 00:21:53.920 So. 00:21:54.040 --> 00:21:59.520 Because when I look at God's answer for Habakkuk is looking at this passage, what God's saying he's saying to himself in verse five. 00:22:00.940 --> 00:22:03.400 God, I just cried out to you in a lament. 00:22:05.080 --> 00:22:09.070 And if I look at Israel and their laments, when they lament, here's what happens. 00:22:09.200 --> 00:22:09.720 They come to you. 00:22:10.160 --> 00:22:11.240 They cry about the sin. 00:22:11.280 --> 00:22:12.400 They cry out to you in the sin. 00:22:12.600 --> 00:22:15.320 And then there's a revival and everything's better. 00:22:15.960 --> 00:22:17.200 And that's how you're supposed to work. 00:22:19.780 --> 00:22:20.080 God. 00:22:20.160 --> 00:22:23.000 Now that I'm looking at you and wondering, do you care? 00:22:23.380 --> 00:22:24.180 Not now. 00:22:24.180 --> 00:22:25.760 I'm wondering if you're even a good God. 00:22:28.760 --> 00:22:35.960 So the answer for us as believers in looking at this, we have the opportunity to look at this hindsight, because what the nation of Israel is 00:22:35.960 --> 00:22:37.060 seeking is peace. 00:22:37.120 --> 00:22:44.160 And the peace in which we need is found in Christ, and God will ultimately reconcile all wrong that's been done in the 00:22:44.160 --> 00:22:44.500 world. 00:22:44.540 --> 00:22:49.460 But the peace in which we need originates and is found itself in Jesus. 00:22:49.520 --> 00:22:51.820 And so here's sort of the response we could throw into this. 00:22:53.140 --> 00:23:00.140 Okay, Habakkuk, your choice says, okay, God, God is a is a bad God because he allows bad things to happen or more 00:23:01.300 --> 00:23:02.860 mind blowing than that. 00:23:04.520 --> 00:23:11.580 Is that God is so powerful and God is so good that he can take the negative circumstances around your 00:23:11.580 --> 00:23:18.680 life and use that for the work of his good in all good things, from a God who is good in 00:23:18.680 --> 00:23:19.500 himself. 00:23:19.700 --> 00:23:22.220 I mean, those are the only two possibilities in this passage. 00:23:22.780 --> 00:23:30.860 Either either God is so profound and being able to blow our minds that he is going to take the bad things of this world, and by his power turn 00:23:30.860 --> 00:23:33.700 them for good or he is bad. 00:23:35.950 --> 00:23:38.420 Now for us we would say this Does God have that capability? 00:23:41.080 --> 00:23:42.040 Yeah. 00:23:42.400 --> 00:23:44.320 How? 00:23:45.040 --> 00:23:47.300 The cross. 00:23:48.100 --> 00:23:49.380 When you think of everything the cross represents. 00:23:53.020 --> 00:23:55.040 Despised and shamed. 00:23:57.120 --> 00:23:59.020 A place of mockery in human history. 00:24:00.940 --> 00:24:01.400 And yet. 00:24:02.800 --> 00:24:03.760 It's the symbol of victory. 00:24:06.480 --> 00:24:11.880 God is more than capable of taking the worst of moments and using it for his glory and our good. 00:24:14.420 --> 00:24:16.570 But Habakkuk and the struggle. 00:24:18.460 --> 00:24:19.500 Needs to discover that. 00:24:19.660 --> 00:24:21.600 And so hearing what God's response is. 00:24:23.000 --> 00:24:27.020 His next country song comes in verse five or excuse me, verse 12. 00:24:29.140 --> 00:24:29.940 First he says God. 00:24:31.680 --> 00:24:32.280 Do you care? 00:24:34.140 --> 00:24:37.120 But here, as he sings this song of lament again before the Lord. 00:24:38.420 --> 00:24:39.730 He says, God, are you even caring? 00:24:41.420 --> 00:24:42.080 Is your nature caring? 00:24:43.620 --> 00:24:44.400 He says it like this. 00:24:44.720 --> 00:24:45.840 Are you not from everlasting? 00:24:46.000 --> 00:24:47.340 Oh Lord my God, my Holy One. 00:24:48.640 --> 00:24:49.470 We will not die. 00:24:50.780 --> 00:24:52.300 You, O Lord, have appointed them to judge. 00:24:52.840 --> 00:24:54.760 And you, O Rock, have established them to correct. 00:24:54.880 --> 00:24:59.070 Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, and you cannot look on the wickedness with favor. 00:24:59.100 --> 00:25:01.320 Why do you look with favor on those who deal treacherously? 00:25:02.000 --> 00:25:05.800 Why are you silent when the wicked swallow up those more righteous than they? 00:25:06.160 --> 00:25:09.140 Why have you made men like the fish of the sea? 00:25:09.160 --> 00:25:12.320 Like the creeping things without a ruler over them? 00:25:14.320 --> 00:25:17.920 See, Habakkuk now gets to the issue deeper than just the circumstances around him. 00:25:18.000 --> 00:25:19.640 He starts dealing with the character of God. 00:25:20.800 --> 00:25:22.500 God, are you not from everlasting? 00:25:25.080 --> 00:25:25.400 God. 00:25:25.440 --> 00:25:26.460 I mean, who are you? 00:25:26.460 --> 00:25:32.180 I thought I had this idea of what you wanted to accomplish, but now I'm testing the reality of who you are. 00:25:32.460 --> 00:25:34.600 Are you who you say you are? 00:25:34.720 --> 00:25:37.400 Do you really care? 00:25:39.740 --> 00:25:47.000 You know, I think based on the context of the scripture, I think it's only fitting for us 00:25:47.000 --> 00:25:48.400 today, not not to. 00:25:50.320 --> 00:25:53.280 Sound are overemphasized. 00:25:53.380 --> 00:25:56.020 Just the thought of positive feeling and walking out this morning. 00:25:56.240 --> 00:25:58.100 Because what Habakkuk is writing is lament. 00:26:00.920 --> 00:26:03.020 Can I tell you a lamenting is healthy for the soul. 00:26:06.440 --> 00:26:09.400 I think lamenting is good for us as people. 00:26:12.520 --> 00:26:22.800 Lamenting is a place where exposes the need of who we are as human beings before God that's more incapable. 00:26:23.120 --> 00:26:28.060 So I think sometimes within humanity, our struggle with ourselves isn't that we need to make much of us. 00:26:29.560 --> 00:26:34.080 In fact, in reality, we need to make less of us and more of God. 00:26:37.360 --> 00:26:41.440 We are really good at distractions. 00:26:43.660 --> 00:26:46.320 And you think about the way our society is set up today. 00:26:46.360 --> 00:26:48.440 You don't go anywhere without television. 00:26:48.640 --> 00:26:50.900 I mean, you can go to the gas pump and watch TV. 00:26:52.020 --> 00:26:57.120 One entertaining thing without another just distracting the mind from other things. 00:26:57.120 --> 00:26:59.000 More, more significant things in the world. 00:26:59.200 --> 00:27:05.220 And in Habakkuk, in this question that he's asking, he's getting to those most significant thoughts now, not just God. 00:27:05.340 --> 00:27:06.220 Do you do you care? 00:27:06.220 --> 00:27:08.000 But are you even a caring God? 00:27:09.240 --> 00:27:16.620 I think it's important for us in our lives, not just to look at the good things that God has made, but look at the one who is good, who has created 00:27:16.620 --> 00:27:17.200 them all. 00:27:18.800 --> 00:27:25.320 If I gave it a story to us like this, it would be if we're all going on a vacation together and we're heading to Disney. 00:27:26.780 --> 00:27:28.030 I can see some of you in the back seat. 00:27:28.080 --> 00:27:29.880 Just so excited with your big ears. 00:27:29.880 --> 00:27:36.090 Just waiting for the Mickey Mouse appearance, and you just want to see the Magic Kingdom. 00:27:38.180 --> 00:27:45.180 And all of a sudden, before we get to Disney, I pull off on the side of the road at the 00:27:45.180 --> 00:27:48.870 mile marker that says 125 miles before you reach Disney. 00:27:50.160 --> 00:27:51.540 I mean, what do you think would happen? 00:27:52.860 --> 00:27:55.940 You take over the bus and we'd all make sure we got there. 00:27:55.960 --> 00:27:56.260 Right? 00:27:56.300 --> 00:27:59.800 You don't want to stop the journey short of the goodness of who God is. 00:28:00.060 --> 00:28:03.180 And Habakkuk in the story, this is where he's driving to. 00:28:03.560 --> 00:28:10.600 He wants us to understand the goodness of who God is, because he recognizes that if he can define who God is, 00:28:10.820 --> 00:28:14.240 then he can define what God wants to accomplish and an understanding who God is. 00:28:14.260 --> 00:28:18.180 Then he gets to understand who he is in light of that and where he's heading in this world. 00:28:18.200 --> 00:28:22.360 Because if God is good, it gives him hope beyond the circumstance. 00:28:25.400 --> 00:28:28.150 Now you come to an end of the passage like this and you can say to yourself. 00:28:29.500 --> 00:28:29.600 Well. 00:28:29.680 --> 00:28:31.070 What have you learned so far? 00:28:33.080 --> 00:28:35.070 You can say, there's all sorts of things. 00:28:36.500 --> 00:28:37.600 Verses 2 to 4. 00:28:37.600 --> 00:28:38.760 Godly leadership is important. 00:28:39.120 --> 00:28:43.620 Obviously, Israel has been under ungodly leadership and so godly, godly leadership is important. 00:28:43.620 --> 00:28:45.360 Or definitely go to God. 00:28:45.440 --> 00:28:46.350 Go to God in your troubles. 00:28:46.740 --> 00:28:53.150 And oh, and here's this promise God definitely hears when you are going through your struggles because God responds. 00:28:53.420 --> 00:28:56.620 And God's God's working out his plan before you even ask. 00:28:56.640 --> 00:29:00.600 Because before Habakkuk even came to God, God's like, here, let me let you in on what my plan is. 00:29:00.740 --> 00:29:01.000 Habakkuk. 00:29:01.720 --> 00:29:04.280 And God isn't ending his story with his people. 00:29:04.720 --> 00:29:06.880 He still has a plan for the nation of Israel. 00:29:06.880 --> 00:29:11.540 He's going to take them into captivity or it's always good to admit there is a problem. 00:29:11.600 --> 00:29:15.200 The first step to recovery is to admit there is a problem, right? 00:29:16.320 --> 00:29:17.980 Or look for God to respond. 00:29:18.000 --> 00:29:19.620 Wait for him to provide answers. 00:29:21.180 --> 00:29:21.680 However. 00:29:23.720 --> 00:29:30.000 I think any of those answers that we look at through the book of Habakkuk undermines the bigger picture of what Habakkuk is saying to us. 00:29:33.360 --> 00:29:35.780 Sometimes in life we settle for quick fixes. 00:29:38.890 --> 00:29:41.060 But when Habakkuk is starting a story. 00:29:42.380 --> 00:29:46.860 He's beginning it by taking several steps back and going much deeper than quick fixes. 00:29:49.080 --> 00:29:49.900 Reality is in these moments. 00:29:50.100 --> 00:29:55.080 God could have stepped in to the nation of Israel and not allow the Babylonians to take over. 00:29:57.420 --> 00:29:59.060 But, the truth is, that's just a Band-Aid. 00:30:01.800 --> 00:30:09.160 It's just a band aid to what Habakkuk is crying before the Lord, because Habakkuk also recognized that the adversity in which he faced honestly 00:30:09.580 --> 00:30:11.200 didn't originate with the people of Babylon. 00:30:12.700 --> 00:30:14.020 That problem is new to him. 00:30:15.940 --> 00:30:19.960 What Habakkuk first brought to God was the struggle within his own nation. 00:30:21.980 --> 00:30:28.100 Habakkuk is now looking at circumstances all around him and everywhere he looks within his own people and outside of his people. 00:30:28.100 --> 00:30:30.860 He's seeing destruction, he's seeing corruption. 00:30:31.100 --> 00:30:34.660 And so he's coming to God with these two empty, these two questions of significance. 00:30:34.720 --> 00:30:35.460 God, do you care? 00:30:35.700 --> 00:30:36.730 And are you a caring being? 00:30:37.160 --> 00:30:38.960 I'm just looking for shalom. 00:30:43.320 --> 00:30:46.200 When we face adversity in life, that's the questions we like to ask. 00:30:48.400 --> 00:30:49.400 Does somebody care? 00:30:50.820 --> 00:30:51.970 Is everything going to be okay? 00:30:54.640 --> 00:30:59.530 Knowing that as God speaks to Habakkuk, he's also talking to Jeremiah. 00:30:59.740 --> 00:31:03.700 We get a backdrop from the rest of Scripture just to identify what the nature of God is. 00:31:03.740 --> 00:31:10.980 But as Habakkuk is going through the struggle, but second Chronicles chapter 36 and verse 15 gives us a historical background for what's happening 00:31:11.100 --> 00:31:12.000 during the time of Israel. 00:31:12.020 --> 00:31:15.720 And this is what God says to Habakkuk, or to all the people of Israel. 00:31:16.880 --> 00:31:24.600 The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent word to them again and again by his messengers, because 00:31:24.600 --> 00:31:27.900 he has had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. 00:31:27.980 --> 00:31:33.620 But they continually mocked the messengers of God, despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets. 00:31:36.060 --> 00:31:36.560 Like Habakkuk. 00:31:36.660 --> 00:31:38.320 If you're asking me, do I care? 00:31:38.600 --> 00:31:39.840 The answer is yes. 00:31:40.420 --> 00:31:47.360 You just didn't care to listen to the messages that I delivered over and over, right? 00:31:48.000 --> 00:31:51.480 See Habakkuk is waiting until the midnight hour to come before God. 00:31:51.560 --> 00:31:58.680 But God is pointing out to Habakkuk to Israel that even in the adversity they face, God is not the one that ever 00:31:58.680 --> 00:31:59.800 quit caring about them. 00:31:59.800 --> 00:32:01.560 And God is not the one that gave up on them. 00:32:03.560 --> 00:32:04.800 In fact, the opposite is true. 00:32:06.940 --> 00:32:08.040 He says to them again. 00:32:09.200 --> 00:32:09.760 And again. 00:32:11.100 --> 00:32:13.940 He tried to speak into their lives and into their hearts. 00:32:15.240 --> 00:32:16.020 Because he had compassion. 00:32:17.460 --> 00:32:18.040 Honest people. 00:32:19.560 --> 00:32:20.540 But yet what happened? 00:32:21.720 --> 00:32:28.160 They continually mocked him and Jeremiah, another prophet during the time of Habakkuk, Jeremiah said this. 00:32:29.900 --> 00:32:31.120 Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel. 00:32:31.300 --> 00:32:34.620 Like these good figs, he's comparing Israel to good figs. 00:32:35.080 --> 00:32:42.300 So I will regard as good the exiles from Judah, the people going to take into Babylonian captivity, whom I have sent away from this place 00:32:42.300 --> 00:32:45.140 to the land of the Chaldeans, which is where the Babylonians were. 00:32:45.380 --> 00:32:49.460 I will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. 00:32:50.500 --> 00:32:52.360 I will build them up and not tear them down. 00:32:52.360 --> 00:32:53.920 I will plant them and not pluck them up. 00:32:54.160 --> 00:33:01.560 I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, for they shall return with me that 00:33:01.560 --> 00:33:02.510 her whole heart. 00:33:04.540 --> 00:33:11.640 I want to say on the backdrop of this, every bad thing that happens to 00:33:11.760 --> 00:33:15.860 us is in a chastisement from God. 00:33:16.260 --> 00:33:21.490 But he is pointing out in the life of Habakkuk that God is using this chastisement to bring them to him. 00:33:23.420 --> 00:33:28.300 He's saying to Habakkuk, to the people listening, you're looking at these circumstances as a bad thing. 00:33:28.340 --> 00:33:29.400 But here's the beauty of it all. 00:33:31.080 --> 00:33:36.440 I'm more concerned with your heart in the moment and the adversity that you're facing, right? 00:33:37.380 --> 00:33:38.840 Now God cares about the adversity. 00:33:41.100 --> 00:33:43.010 Beyond that, his concern is the heart. 00:33:44.740 --> 00:33:46.940 And God's plan in Jeremiah chapter 24. 00:33:46.940 --> 00:33:50.620 Even as we just saw in Second Chronicles, it's not to give up on the nation. 00:33:52.300 --> 00:33:59.500 But to get them to a place in their lives where they see the goodness of who God is and their heart yearns to be with him. 00:33:59.500 --> 00:34:02.040 And so Jeremiah goes on and says this, and Jeremiah 23. 00:34:03.340 --> 00:34:05.180 Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord. 00:34:06.560 --> 00:34:13.760 When I'll raise up from David a righteous branch, and he will reign as king, and act wisely, and do justice and righteousness in the land. 00:34:16.080 --> 00:34:19.210 God's plan for the nation of Israel is Jesus. 00:34:19.260 --> 00:34:25.800 It tells us in Jeremiah 23, But God's plan for the nation of Israel isn't just a band aid fix to each problem. 00:34:28.000 --> 00:34:28.860 But it's a complete rescue. 00:34:31.120 --> 00:34:35.550 We don't just need a fix once we need rescued every day. 00:34:35.780 --> 00:34:39.960 And in fact, in history, there was an individual by the name of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. 00:34:42.199 --> 00:34:46.920 Dietrich Bonhoeffer was alive in the 1900s into the mid 1900s. 00:34:46.940 --> 00:34:51.820 He was an individual, that he was a minister and he was in Nazi Germany as a pastor. 00:34:53.239 --> 00:35:00.300 The experience of his life reflects Habakkuk very closely, and that he's looking at within his own church, at the 00:35:00.400 --> 00:35:02.200 people that claim to follow after the Lord. 00:35:02.240 --> 00:35:03.900 And he's noticing this about their lives. 00:35:04.340 --> 00:35:10.080 They have lulled themselves to sleep, to the spiritual condition they need for Jesus. 00:35:11.560 --> 00:35:17.380 And not only that, on the external part of the church, he's seeing the oppression take place through Nazi Germany. 00:35:17.400 --> 00:35:21.220 That's not only coming after the Jewish people, but also coming after Christians. 00:35:22.220 --> 00:35:29.160 And he's beginning to feel the same feeling of Habakkuk, where on the inside the spiritual condition is falling apart. 00:35:29.180 --> 00:35:31.260 On the outside there's being oppressed. 00:35:31.300 --> 00:35:38.620 And Dietrich Bonhoeffer stared this in the face and began to write in Nazi Germany, things that 00:35:38.680 --> 00:35:41.320 would cause him to eventually lose his life. 00:35:43.260 --> 00:35:50.560 He began to take his stand in Jesus, recording, what people needed to know about the need for Jesus and the pursuit 00:35:50.560 --> 00:35:52.020 of Jesus with their lives. 00:35:52.360 --> 00:35:57.680 And he continued to reflect on this phrase for the people of God, where he talked about cheap grace. 00:36:00.060 --> 00:36:02.460 So you know the problem with us. 00:36:05.060 --> 00:36:08.430 It goes much deeper than just the temporary fixes of life. 00:36:10.780 --> 00:36:12.240 So that we've cheapened grace. 00:36:16.000 --> 00:36:16.400 It's not. 00:36:17.960 --> 00:36:20.120 The fight against the fact that grace is free. 00:36:20.280 --> 00:36:23.660 Bonhoeffer was clear in saying Grace is free. 00:36:25.860 --> 00:36:28.620 But the reality is that people have cheapened it. 00:36:30.840 --> 00:36:37.880 As he reflected on the church, he would begin to say in their spiritual condition that when they would live their lives, they would live it however they wanted, or contrary 00:36:37.880 --> 00:36:41.220 to what Christ would want, because they could look at his grace and just say his grace covered it. 00:36:44.540 --> 00:36:47.260 But what he wanted to hammer home for the people. 00:36:49.380 --> 00:36:50.040 Yes. 00:36:50.040 --> 00:36:50.920 Grace is free. 00:36:52.840 --> 00:36:53.840 But it isn't cheap. 00:36:56.860 --> 00:36:57.200 Extent. 00:36:57.940 --> 00:37:01.780 Of the payment for you to even begin to experience it. 00:37:04.360 --> 00:37:05.700 Jesus has paid it all. 00:37:08.140 --> 00:37:15.180 In fact, Bonhoeffer and reflecting to his own people, wrote to them about Martin Luther and said, do you know what the secret to the Reformation was? 00:37:18.380 --> 00:37:22.760 The secret to the Reformation was not that they recognized there was justification from sin. 00:37:25.080 --> 00:37:27.380 But that there was justification for the sinner. 00:37:32.240 --> 00:37:37.340 There is a place in our lives where we fight so hard to keep things of this world for which we do not belong. 00:37:40.920 --> 00:37:48.080 And it's important for us before we even begin to ask, does God care about the specific of a situation to ask 00:37:48.080 --> 00:37:48.420 God? 00:37:48.850 --> 00:37:50.740 Ultimately, what is the plan of all things? 00:37:53.240 --> 00:37:53.720 Why? 00:37:56.500 --> 00:38:01.400 Because there comes a place in all of our lives where eventually the Band-Aid fixes stop working. 00:38:01.740 --> 00:38:06.250 And when we're staring at the end, we want to know something's there. 00:38:09.100 --> 00:38:12.110 When you look at a face of a mother about to lose a child. 00:38:14.460 --> 00:38:21.480 When you look at the hardship of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was putting his life on the line, he lost his life one one week 00:38:21.480 --> 00:38:24.000 before the war ended with Nazi Germany. 00:38:26.920 --> 00:38:30.300 How do you wake up the next day and live your lives? 00:38:33.860 --> 00:38:41.420 It's by reflecting on this in God, as he says in Jeremiah 23 five, it's that grace is not cheap. 00:38:45.660 --> 00:38:52.880 At some point within our lives, we often in reflecting back to Jesus, can lull ourselves asleep in the significance of 00:38:52.880 --> 00:38:53.160 this. 00:38:53.180 --> 00:38:56.560 And this is what makes Habakkuk in this lament so important. 00:38:57.280 --> 00:39:02.100 Because when you read about the nation of Israel over and over again. 00:39:04.740 --> 00:39:06.290 God comes to them. 00:39:06.980 --> 00:39:11.820 And God cries out to them and God expresses his love for them. 00:39:14.760 --> 00:39:16.920 But they treat his grace. 00:39:18.660 --> 00:39:19.620 As if it were cheap. 00:39:23.880 --> 00:39:24.650 Can I tell you? 00:39:25.880 --> 00:39:33.720 As we go through this book together, we're going to look at the nature and the concern and 00:39:33.720 --> 00:39:39.060 the character of God as he looks into the daily aspects of our life with his love and goodness. 00:39:42.400 --> 00:39:44.760 But if you look at the theme of the Old Testament and the New Testament. 00:39:47.500 --> 00:39:52.440 Goddess continuing to remind himself or remind them that he is greater. 00:39:54.560 --> 00:40:00.340 And that for our hearts it's important not to make much of ourselves. 00:40:02.320 --> 00:40:04.230 But to connect to the goodness of who he is. 00:40:06.020 --> 00:40:07.320 Because his grace isn't cheap. 00:40:09.120 --> 00:40:14.690 And our lives belong to him as he is the rescue of all things.