1 00:00:00,020 --> 00:00:04,280 For those of you that weren't here last Sunday, this is our second week, like Justin said, 2 00:00:04,280 --> 00:00:11,480 in our Expecting series. It's an Advent series. And in this series, we get to spend some time 3 00:00:11,930 --> 00:00:18,120 not just remembering Jesus's arrival on this earth, but also just spend time anticipating 4 00:00:18,640 --> 00:00:25,660 and expecting that the same Jesus that came down from heaven is the same Jesus today. And he's 5 00:00:25,620 --> 00:00:31,660 going to continue to do amazing and incredible things in our lives. And we should absolutely be 6 00:00:31,960 --> 00:00:36,500 expecting that. And so for the next seven weeks, we're going to see what the minor prophets were 7 00:00:36,600 --> 00:00:42,840 expecting from God. We're going to see how Jesus fulfilled these expectations. And then finally, 8 00:00:42,880 --> 00:00:48,820 we're going to see what we should be expecting from him today. And so today we'll be in the book 9 00:00:48,900 --> 00:00:54,179 of Habakkuk. Before we get into the passage, by show of hands, how many of you have ever been 10 00:00:54,600 --> 00:01:00,220 disappointed because you expected someone to do something and they did the complete opposite. 11 00:01:01,960 --> 00:01:07,600 Oh, everyone should be raising their hands. If you've never been let down before, 12 00:01:09,320 --> 00:01:15,980 I'm not going to call you a liar, but praise God, because that is not the norm for most of us. 13 00:01:17,120 --> 00:01:24,060 I get let down every day. I'm just kidding. But I'll give you a quick example. My wife, 14 00:01:24,680 --> 00:01:30,120 she expects me to be, no, no, she's not the one that lets me down. Okay. 15 00:01:32,800 --> 00:01:38,140 But my wife, she expects me to be the one that makes coffee in the morning. Right. And she has 16 00:01:38,260 --> 00:01:43,800 these expectations for me because of the one morning where she tried to make it. And it was 17 00:01:44,200 --> 00:01:52,059 a complete disaster. I have no clue how she managed to do it, but she made what was supposed to be a 18 00:01:52,080 --> 00:02:00,720 beautiful cup of coffee tastes like a cup of potato water. It was so bad. And so ever since 19 00:02:00,910 --> 00:02:06,280 then, for five years, I've been the one making coffee. And you can imagine her reaction when one 20 00:02:06,360 --> 00:02:14,220 day I just decided not to do it. I had some choice words waiting for me. And so I know most of us 21 00:02:14,370 --> 00:02:20,940 can probably remember a time where we expected someone to act a certain way, and then they did 22 00:02:20,880 --> 00:02:26,040 the complete opposite. And so that's sort of what we're going to see in the book of Habakkuk. 23 00:02:26,820 --> 00:02:34,680 Habakkuk is a story of a man that had to sort out how to live with faith when God did the exact 24 00:02:35,040 --> 00:02:40,960 opposite of what he was expecting. And so if you have a physical Bible, go ahead and turn to 25 00:02:41,440 --> 00:02:45,580 Habakkuk. If you're using one of the Bibles underneath the chair in front of you, it's going 26 00:02:45,480 --> 00:02:53,740 be on page 832. We're going to be looking at Habakkuk 2 verses 1 through 4. It's also on the screen. 27 00:02:57,060 --> 00:03:05,820 I will stand at my guard post and station myself on the lookout tower. I will watch to see 28 00:03:06,870 --> 00:03:14,620 what he will say to me and what I should reply about my complaint. The Lord answered me 29 00:03:15,040 --> 00:03:22,060 write down this vision, clearly inscribe it on tablets so that, so one may easily read it. 30 00:03:23,120 --> 00:03:29,900 For the vision is yet for the appointed time, though it, it testifies about the end and will 31 00:03:29,980 --> 00:03:36,920 not lie, though it delays, wait for it since it will certainly come and not be late. Look, 32 00:03:37,520 --> 00:03:44,540 His ego is inflated. He is without integrity, but the righteous one will live by his faith. 33 00:03:49,780 --> 00:03:55,080 What are you talking about, God? What does that even mean? The righteous one will live by faith. 34 00:03:56,060 --> 00:04:02,519 And so to properly understand the text, we need some context. So Habakkuk was one of the 12 35 00:04:02,880 --> 00:04:07,420 minor prophets of the Old Testament. We don't know too much about him other than he was a prophet 36 00:04:07,740 --> 00:04:13,360 for the southern kingdom of Judah during the reign of King Josiah around 640 BC. 37 00:04:14,480 --> 00:04:19,459 This was during the time when the nation of Israel, they split into two separate kingdoms. So you had 38 00:04:19,780 --> 00:04:25,100 the northern kingdom of Israel and you had the southern kingdom of Judah. And both of them, 39 00:04:25,920 --> 00:04:31,840 they were doing the same exact thing. They were both sinning. Maybe Judah sinned a little bit less, 40 00:04:32,060 --> 00:04:37,000 But that's the thing about sin is that God doesn't excuse it. 41 00:04:37,580 --> 00:04:40,740 And so it doesn't matter how small we think our sin is. 42 00:04:42,060 --> 00:04:46,580 Man, that is a transgression against a righteous and holy God. 43 00:04:47,660 --> 00:04:49,440 And so Judah was facing two threats. 44 00:04:50,240 --> 00:04:52,080 The first threat came from the outside. 45 00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:59,760 Both the Babylonians and the Assyrians wanted to completely wipe them out and destroy them. 46 00:05:00,780 --> 00:05:03,700 And so the second threat was from within. 47 00:05:04,540 --> 00:05:06,740 They were destroying themselves from within. 48 00:05:06,770 --> 00:05:08,300 They were worshiping idols. 49 00:05:09,100 --> 00:05:14,480 There was a lot of sexual immorality, tons of social injustices. 50 00:05:16,900 --> 00:05:19,180 And so that's where Habakkuk's story actually begins. 51 00:05:19,210 --> 00:05:24,260 It begins with him crying out to God because he sees all the unrighteousness in his country 52 00:05:24,820 --> 00:05:28,440 and he doesn't understand why God isn't doing anything about it. 53 00:05:29,520 --> 00:05:30,980 Or at least that's what he thinks. 54 00:05:31,710 --> 00:05:35,420 Because God gives him an answer in verse five. 55 00:05:36,800 --> 00:05:39,820 He gives him an unbelievable answer. 56 00:05:40,980 --> 00:05:43,740 God tells Habakkuk, the Babylonians, 57 00:05:44,740 --> 00:05:48,840 your enemies are going to invade your country. 58 00:05:50,000 --> 00:05:53,800 They're going to take your entire people into captivity. 59 00:05:56,460 --> 00:05:58,480 Think about what God is saying to him. 60 00:05:58,660 --> 00:06:03,660 He's saying that I'm going to make things worse before they get better. 61 00:06:05,400 --> 00:06:10,220 I'll answer your prayer, but you're also going to get invaded. 62 00:06:14,520 --> 00:06:15,200 Yeah, I don't think I would. 63 00:06:15,320 --> 00:06:19,180 I think I would have my doubts about what God is doing. 64 00:06:21,260 --> 00:06:32,160 And so how exactly are we supposed to trust in God's plans and his promises when we have no clue what he's doing in our lives? 65 00:06:32,900 --> 00:06:35,620 That's the question that we get in Habakkuk. 66 00:06:36,380 --> 00:06:41,620 How are we supposed to respond when God does the opposite of what we're expecting? 67 00:06:42,860 --> 00:06:44,920 See, we all have expectations of God. 68 00:06:45,980 --> 00:06:48,720 We all have expectations of how we think God should act. 69 00:06:49,320 --> 00:06:54,980 But all throughout the Bible, we see that God often does the complete opposite of what we expect of him. 70 00:06:56,380 --> 00:06:57,980 Think about the story of Paul. 71 00:06:58,720 --> 00:07:00,240 Paul hated Christians. 72 00:07:01,680 --> 00:07:02,940 He persecuted the church. 73 00:07:04,020 --> 00:07:07,600 But God made him the greatest church planner in human history. 74 00:07:08,140 --> 00:07:09,300 Think about Jesus. 75 00:07:10,919 --> 00:07:16,460 Just think about the Messiah and how the Pharisees were picturing the Messiah was going to look like. 76 00:07:16,560 --> 00:07:19,920 They thought he was going to be a strong and powerful king. 77 00:07:22,460 --> 00:07:31,480 And Jesus, the Messiah, ended up being born in a manger to a virgin who had no status or royalty. 78 00:07:34,800 --> 00:07:40,000 God always does things that shatters our expectations of how we think he should act. 79 00:07:41,480 --> 00:07:43,280 And that's Habakkuk's problem. 80 00:07:44,020 --> 00:07:48,660 God does something complete opposite of how he thinks God should act. 81 00:07:49,940 --> 00:07:54,980 And so the question for us is how does God expect us to respond 82 00:07:56,110 --> 00:07:58,800 when God does the unexpected in our lives? 83 00:08:01,100 --> 00:08:02,380 Well, he makes it extremely clear. 84 00:08:03,720 --> 00:08:05,660 Look back at verse 4. 85 00:08:06,780 --> 00:08:08,980 He expects us to live by our faith. 86 00:08:11,960 --> 00:08:15,380 God tells Habakkuk, yes, you're going to be conquered. 87 00:08:16,310 --> 00:08:17,740 You're going to be taken into captivity. 88 00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:19,200 Your life is going to suck. 89 00:08:21,880 --> 00:08:23,100 But it's only going to be temporary. 90 00:08:24,960 --> 00:08:26,940 I'm going to deliver you in the future. 91 00:08:27,240 --> 00:08:32,460 But until then, you're just going to have to wait and live by your faith. 92 00:08:34,520 --> 00:08:40,719 And if this were easy, if this is something that we could just accept and be like, yeah, God, I totally trust you in. 93 00:08:41,219 --> 00:08:42,500 We could probably end this message right here. 94 00:08:44,219 --> 00:08:49,060 But for most of us, man, when God does the unexpected in our lives, 95 00:08:49,490 --> 00:08:50,520 we have questions. 96 00:08:54,740 --> 00:08:58,220 And so the first way that we can live by faith, 97 00:09:00,080 --> 00:09:05,260 actually Habakkuk shows us three practical ways that we can live by faith right now. 98 00:09:05,820 --> 00:09:06,560 And this is the first. 99 00:09:07,580 --> 00:09:09,820 Look back at chapter one, verse two. 100 00:09:12,500 --> 00:09:19,760 how long Lord must I call for help and you do not listen or cry out to you about violence and you do 101 00:09:19,860 --> 00:09:27,320 not save? Why do you force me to look at injustice? And see, the first thing that we can do 102 00:09:28,420 --> 00:09:35,420 to live by faith is just to be honest with God. Habakkuk was honest with God. 103 00:09:36,840 --> 00:09:42,280 And I think we have this tendency as Christians to stuff everything down. 104 00:09:44,140 --> 00:09:49,980 You ever heard the saying, like, you know, it's in the church a lot, like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. 105 00:09:51,200 --> 00:09:54,800 Something just devastating happened in my life, but it's all good. 106 00:09:55,050 --> 00:09:55,440 God is good. 107 00:09:58,120 --> 00:10:04,360 How does that help you if you can't even be honest to yourself or honest with God? 108 00:10:06,300 --> 00:10:12,760 And so that could be a first way that you can take a step today to live by your faith is just, 109 00:10:13,840 --> 00:10:19,080 I don't know, if life feels like it's just really dumping on you to just be honest with him, 110 00:10:20,160 --> 00:10:26,600 complain to him, cry out to him, tell him about your lack of faith because he already knows. 111 00:10:29,320 --> 00:10:35,660 And so the second thing that we see in Habakkuk's story is that he was just extremely patient. 112 00:10:36,140 --> 00:10:43,400 with God. He patiently waited to hear from the Lord. Look at what he says in chapter two, verse one, 113 00:10:43,800 --> 00:10:51,340 I will stand at my guard post and station myself on the lookout tower. I will watch to see what he 114 00:10:51,440 --> 00:11:00,440 will say to me and what I should reply about my complaint. That's what Habakkuk is committed to. 115 00:11:00,480 --> 00:11:05,460 He's committed to stand firm in his faith, 116 00:11:07,140 --> 00:11:11,140 to continue taking watch until God does something. 117 00:11:11,680 --> 00:11:14,660 And that's something we could all learn from, 118 00:11:15,040 --> 00:11:16,580 to just take it a day at a time. 119 00:11:20,800 --> 00:11:22,840 Look, God may not be calling you 120 00:11:23,580 --> 00:11:25,640 to go to the top of Barber's Point Lighthouse 121 00:11:26,700 --> 00:11:29,980 with binoculars and wait for him with dry food. 122 00:11:31,320 --> 00:11:32,400 I don't think that's it. 123 00:11:33,900 --> 00:11:36,940 But he is calling you to live by faith. 124 00:11:37,740 --> 00:11:42,240 He is calling you to keep showing up while you wait for him. 125 00:11:42,760 --> 00:11:45,760 And so I have no idea what's going on in your life right now. 126 00:11:47,740 --> 00:11:49,540 But Habakkuk kept showing up. 127 00:11:50,620 --> 00:11:51,960 He kept waiting on the Lord. 128 00:11:53,240 --> 00:11:54,420 And man, that is hard. 129 00:11:55,660 --> 00:12:00,540 I personally went through the toughest season of faith this year. 130 00:12:01,540 --> 00:12:05,740 Leaving the military after eight years and transitioning into full-time ministry, 131 00:12:06,860 --> 00:12:08,040 that was a leap of faith. 132 00:12:08,450 --> 00:12:12,800 I had no idea if God was going to make a way for me. 133 00:12:16,440 --> 00:12:20,560 And it was such a struggle because day in and day out, I kept showing up. 134 00:12:21,320 --> 00:12:23,580 I kept asking God to make a way. 135 00:12:25,100 --> 00:12:28,420 But I had doubts myself if he would even pull through. 136 00:12:29,060 --> 00:12:31,260 I was completely faithless. 137 00:12:34,300 --> 00:12:36,160 But God can do some incredible things 138 00:12:37,100 --> 00:12:41,380 just by the simple act of disciplining yourself 139 00:12:42,290 --> 00:12:44,120 and just making a commitment to God 140 00:12:44,540 --> 00:12:47,980 that you're going to continue showing up day in and day out, 141 00:12:48,370 --> 00:12:49,280 no matter what. 142 00:12:50,780 --> 00:12:53,479 Because it takes discipline to keep showing up 143 00:12:53,540 --> 00:12:55,440 when you aren't getting an answer from God. 144 00:12:56,440 --> 00:12:59,200 It takes discipline to keep reading your Bible 145 00:12:59,710 --> 00:13:01,840 when it feels like God isn't speaking to you through it. 146 00:13:03,320 --> 00:13:07,300 It takes discipline to continue gathering with God's people 147 00:13:08,339 --> 00:13:12,680 when you don't know why in the world God even has you doing it. 148 00:13:15,420 --> 00:13:19,100 But what if his call in your life right now is not to have a deeper faith, 149 00:13:19,230 --> 00:13:21,360 to try to conjure up some more faith, 150 00:13:22,440 --> 00:13:25,020 but to just take it a day at a time 151 00:13:26,280 --> 00:13:29,620 and stand at your guard post and wait for him. 152 00:13:32,340 --> 00:13:34,840 And so the third way we can live by faith 153 00:13:35,760 --> 00:13:39,460 is simply by worshiping God while we wait. 154 00:13:41,140 --> 00:13:44,040 Look at Habakkuk's response in the very end of the story. 155 00:13:44,400 --> 00:13:45,100 It's on the screen. 156 00:13:45,960 --> 00:13:50,780 It's Habakkuk chapter three, verses 17 through 19. 157 00:13:54,760 --> 00:13:56,200 Though the fig tree does not bud, 158 00:13:58,530 --> 00:14:00,060 though the olive crop fails, 159 00:14:03,500 --> 00:14:05,960 and the fields produce no food, 160 00:14:08,180 --> 00:14:10,140 though the flocks disappear from the pen 161 00:14:10,580 --> 00:14:11,940 and there are no herds in the stalls, 162 00:14:12,030 --> 00:14:14,880 yet I will celebrate in the Lord. 163 00:14:15,680 --> 00:14:18,600 I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. 164 00:14:19,940 --> 00:14:22,920 The Lord, my Lord is my strength. 165 00:14:23,840 --> 00:14:29,440 He makes my feet like those of a deer and enables me to walk on mountain heights. 166 00:14:29,850 --> 00:14:31,320 That is so incredible. 167 00:14:39,260 --> 00:14:47,220 If that's your life right now, and you're even able to have a tiny mustard seed of faith, 168 00:14:48,050 --> 00:14:49,600 that is a miracle from God. 169 00:14:51,280 --> 00:14:56,680 and see at the very end of Habakkuk story, he never gets a neat and tidy solution to his problems. 170 00:14:58,460 --> 00:15:03,300 He actually has to live with faith, knowing that things are going to get worse before they get 171 00:15:05,050 --> 00:15:10,660 better. But he says, God, even if you don't change a thing about my circumstance, even when the trees 172 00:15:10,840 --> 00:15:15,899 don't bud, even when there's no fruit on the vines, even when the fields produce no food and there's 173 00:15:15,920 --> 00:15:23,340 nothing at all for me to eat. I'm going to worship you. That's incredible. 174 00:15:25,380 --> 00:15:28,260 If that's not the definition of living by faith, I don't know what is. 175 00:15:30,400 --> 00:15:37,960 And family, we have a reason to worship even if it feels like there's no trees in our lives 176 00:15:38,900 --> 00:15:46,180 that are budding, even when it feels like the fields are producing not a single crop. 177 00:15:48,920 --> 00:15:55,360 Because God ended up fulfilling his promise to Habakkuk, and he ended up filling his promise 178 00:15:55,700 --> 00:16:04,460 to us through Jesus. Hebrews 10 says, the righteous will live by faith. And my goodness, 179 00:16:04,740 --> 00:16:10,920 did Jesus make that true for us? And so I'll give you three reasons why you can worship Jesus 180 00:16:11,570 --> 00:16:15,380 while you wait for him to return, while you wait on an answer from God. 181 00:16:16,800 --> 00:16:25,240 The first is this, through faith in Jesus, you are made righteous. God would have been perfectly 182 00:16:25,560 --> 00:16:32,300 righteous to punish all of us for our sins, just like he punished Judah for their sins. 183 00:16:33,920 --> 00:16:37,680 But instead of doing that, he gave us forgiveness. 184 00:16:39,400 --> 00:16:40,720 He gave us a new status. 185 00:16:42,340 --> 00:16:47,140 If you believe in Jesus, you're no longer a dirty sinner. 186 00:16:47,960 --> 00:16:50,300 You are the righteousness of Christ. 187 00:16:51,700 --> 00:16:54,620 You not only have a righteous stand in before God, 188 00:16:54,720 --> 00:16:59,400 but when God sees you, he sees you with the same righteousness that Jesus has. 189 00:17:00,040 --> 00:17:01,660 You are the righteousness of Christ. 190 00:17:01,740 --> 00:17:03,600 Don't let anyone tell you any different. 191 00:17:06,060 --> 00:17:09,839 Number two, because of your faith, you're made alive in Christ. 192 00:17:11,240 --> 00:17:13,699 We were dead in our trespasses and sins. 193 00:17:14,100 --> 00:17:16,959 And the Bible tells us that the wages of sin is death. 194 00:17:17,459 --> 00:17:18,780 And that's 100% true. 195 00:17:19,439 --> 00:17:20,699 The wages of sin is death. 196 00:17:23,079 --> 00:17:25,600 But while we were dead in our sins and our trespasses, 197 00:17:25,839 --> 00:17:28,160 heading towards a path that led to death, 198 00:17:29,900 --> 00:17:37,420 Through faith, not our actions, through faith, Jesus carried us from death to life. 199 00:17:39,540 --> 00:17:43,980 If you have faith in Jesus today, you've received the life of Christ. 200 00:17:45,780 --> 00:17:49,880 And the amazing news is that Jesus is going to continue to carry your faith 201 00:17:50,640 --> 00:17:53,640 and see it through to completion, even when you're faithless. 202 00:17:55,320 --> 00:18:00,460 Your destiny is not at all dependent on your ability to be perfectly faithful. 203 00:18:01,160 --> 00:18:04,460 Because if that was true, none of us would have a future. 204 00:18:07,700 --> 00:18:12,060 And that is completely, that is mind-blowing. 205 00:18:13,060 --> 00:18:17,380 That we don't have to worry about having the deepest faith. 206 00:18:17,920 --> 00:18:21,600 We don't have to worry about failing at having faith. 207 00:18:23,400 --> 00:18:26,840 Because our faith doesn't rest in our ability to have faith. 208 00:18:27,860 --> 00:18:33,220 It rests in Jesus's ability to continue to carry your faith all the way to completion. 209 00:18:37,060 --> 00:18:40,780 And so it's not about how strong your faith is. 210 00:18:42,240 --> 00:18:43,920 That's the message that we get with Jesus. 211 00:18:44,020 --> 00:18:46,980 It's about how strong he is. 212 00:18:50,400 --> 00:18:54,580 Habakkuk's story gives us a good example of what it looks like to live by faith. 213 00:18:55,700 --> 00:18:57,160 I mean, he was honest with God. 214 00:18:58,360 --> 00:19:00,580 He continued to show up day after day, 215 00:19:01,370 --> 00:19:04,140 even when he didn't understand at all what God was doing. 216 00:19:05,840 --> 00:19:08,060 He worshiped God while he was waiting. 217 00:19:08,900 --> 00:19:12,020 Even in the most desperate moments of his life, 218 00:19:12,130 --> 00:19:17,700 he was still able to cry out and say that, 219 00:19:19,060 --> 00:19:24,780 God was his strength, that God was his salvation. 220 00:19:28,360 --> 00:19:28,940 Thanks, God. 221 00:19:29,940 --> 00:19:30,860 Thanks, God, for Jesus. 222 00:19:31,980 --> 00:19:36,100 And we have every reason to worship him this Advent. 223 00:19:37,040 --> 00:19:43,640 Because Jesus arrived, Jesus is coming back, and Jesus is with us right now. 224 00:19:45,580 --> 00:19:46,920 He's given us his righteousness. 225 00:19:47,560 --> 00:19:48,860 He's given us his life. 226 00:19:49,700 --> 00:19:53,520 And man, we can expect for him to give us the endurance 227 00:19:53,650 --> 00:19:55,580 to continue living by faith, 228 00:19:56,460 --> 00:19:59,400 even in the hopeless moments of our life. 229 00:20:01,360 --> 00:20:04,720 Habakkuk lived by faith and waited for God to deliver him. 230 00:20:05,880 --> 00:20:09,720 And that's our call as we wait for Jesus to deliver us. 231 00:20:11,240 --> 00:20:12,940 He's the hope that allows us to say, 232 00:20:13,040 --> 00:20:15,280 I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. 233 00:20:15,900 --> 00:20:17,840 He's our hope when the trees don't bud, 234 00:20:18,080 --> 00:20:20,400 the fields don't produce food in our lives. 235 00:20:22,820 --> 00:20:25,220 But we still have every reason to worship. 236 00:20:27,840 --> 00:20:30,960 Family, he is righteous and he will do it. 237 00:20:32,200 --> 00:20:34,000 So let's rest in Jesus's faithfulness 238 00:20:34,200 --> 00:20:35,440 as we continue to worship him. 239 00:20:36,740 --> 00:20:37,140 Let's pray.