How Long Lord?
Notes
Transcript
Have you ever found yourself in a place where you asked God where are you?
Where life has brought you to a place where you are going God how long until you make things right?
How long until you help me with this sickness
How long until you end this suffering
How long until my marriage is restored
How long until I find a job
God, how long?
Because today we are going to be just starting to look at this question of what do we do when God does not make sense, and not just that, but where is God when things are far from where they should be.
And really we are looking at a really tiny book in the Old Testement called Habakkuk.
and whats interesting about this book is it is about a prophet named Habakkuk and usually a prophet is someone who communicates to people on behalf of God but we see Habbakuk actually doing the opposite where he is communicating to God on behalf of the people.
And let me just give you a little bit of whats happing when this is written so we can get a picture of whats going on.
Because at this time the Israelites situation is not very good. At the moment they had a wicked king named Jehoiakim and he was known for being just evil.
And this led to corruption in the country, violence and injustice.
And then to add to the conflict there was another nation named Babyloin becoming more powerful, and if you were an Israelite at this time you could see the writing on the wall that it would not be long until the nation would be attacked by this stronger nation.
And so you can picture the anger, the anxiety and the uncertainty over not just their situation currently but over what the next few years would look like.
And its out of this that this prophet comes to God and says this in verses 1-4. And just listen to these verses because I think as we read this you will go I have felt like that before
He says:
2 How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save? 3 Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. 4 Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.
So Habakkuk goes how long God? Why is all this happening? Why is there injustice? Why are you letting this happen?
He even comes to God and goes why are you not listening because this situation is terrible and it looks like you do not care one bit.
And I just want to pause here for the second, because a lot of times I organize my sermons where there is a conflict, and then by the end of the sermon we are looking at scripture and diving into it and then eventually that conflict gets resolved by the end of the message.
Its almost like if you have ever watched a sitcom, whether its the office, parks and rec, leave it to beaver, sienfeld.
a conflict happens, maybe the person looses there job or a relationship goes wrong, and by the end of the episode that conflict gets resolved right?
But todays message is a little different, because we do not get a great awnser to Habbakuks things that He brings to God,
In fact we will see God awnser Habakkuk, and Habakkuk actually goes, “thats garbage”
But what we are doing today is we are sitting in these questions, because the truth is life is not a sitcom.
Because in life when we are at a place where we are asking these questions its not an overnight thing or a 20 minute sermon where you are going to leave here and go “Im good I understand it all!”
, but it might be weeks, months, years, a lifetime.
Because our lives are not a show, where the episode ends and we move on but often times the pain sticks around.
When we loose our job, chances are its not fixed the next day and we might be months without one, and even if we find one there is still hurt
If you loose someone in your life that pain does not just stick around an episode or two but its a wound that you feel every day of your life
When the cancer is in remission and but it comes back.
Life has many times where we do not see the happy ending and what happens is we sit in these questions and go “why God”
And to be truthful we may never know.
But one thing I love about Habbakuks name if you translated it from its original meaning has two definitions,
one was to embrace and the other was to wrestle.
And we see Him doing this with God thoughout this series where He is wrestleing with God, but whats beautiful is He does not let go.
Can I just say wrestling with God is not bad, doubting is not always bad.
But when we let go its the issue.
In fact if you have ever read through the book of Psalms there are a lot of praises (and we thank God for those moments but then in a lot of the psalms they are wrestling with God. They are going why would you allow this to happen?!
I love this quote that I heard another pastor say where He says
“Oftentimes the key to our intimacy with God is is not to live in the mountains (or the mountaintop experiences (although we praise God for those moments)) But to know his faithfulness in the valley.”
Let me read that again:“Oftentimes the key to our intimacy with God is not to live in the mountains, but to know of his faithfulness in the valley.”
You know as I think about the valleys I have experianced in my life, there are times where I have yelled at God, (am I okay to say that as a Pastor)
There are times I have come to God and said “do you see this?”
There are times where I have asked why?
And there are times where I did not like the anwser
And I want us to read part of this second half because Habakkuk comes to God with all of this.
I mean he just unloaded dident he?
And look how God answers. God says this in verses 5. He says:
Habakkuk 1:5 (NIV)
The Lord’s Answer
5 “Look at the nations and watch—
and be utterly amazed.
For I am going to do something in your days
that you would not believe,
even if you were told.
You know I read that and I go here is the resolve! Heres where the problem is fixed because God goes “look around you, I am moving, I am doing stuff and it is something that you cannot even imagine!”
And I go awesome! but look at the rest of this:
Habakkuk 1:6–11 (NIV)
6 I am raising up the Babylonians,
that ruthless and impetuous people,
who sweep across the whole earth
to seize dwellings not their own.
7 They are a feared and dreaded people;
they are a law to themselves
and promote their own honor.
8 Their horses are swifter than leopards,
fiercer than wolves at dusk.
Their cavalry gallops headlong;
their horsemen come from afar.
They fly like an eagle swooping to devour;
9 they all come intent on violence.
Their hordes advance like a desert wind
and gather prisoners like sand.
10 They mock kings
and scoff at rulers.
They laugh at all fortified cities;
by building earthen ramps they capture them.
11 Then they sweep past like the wind and go on—
guilty people, whose own strength is their god.”
So God goes I am doing something that you can’t even imagine, and He then proceeds to say that nation your scared of (the really evil one) I am going to have them take you over.
And you can picture Habakkuk going “Uh what?”
And God going yeah they are going to take you down.
And him going thats not what I was asking you to do.
But I want you to catch this here, because we are going to just begin to resolve this passage a little bit,
Because while we are not getting a full resolve today, In fact please do not just come today, because you will leave and go I am not really satisfied with that, and thats fine, because in life we feel like that.
I mean we are on chapter 1 of 3. Theres are going to be places that are not resolved.
But let me give you three places where we get some resolve.
The first (which is not talked about here a ton) is that God does not desire these situations,
In fact God is not the one who causes pain, but it was sin entering the world that causes so much pain.
Its like dropping a cup and trying to put it back together (MAYBE USE ELEPHANT MAGNATILE INSTEAD)
there might still be areas that are broken, and we might go really you are putting that piece there,
But here is the thing God sees the end picture and while we might go your doing it that way God is putting something together that is better then we can imagine
In fact we see that in verse 5 that we read where God is doing something we cannot understand, but He is moving.
You know whether we see it or not God is moving.
And the truth is in this story while Habbakuk in chapter 3 finds resolve, chances are in his lifetime, He would not be able to physically see what God was doing with His own eyes
But God ended up using the brokeness of this situation in some really powerful ways.
But lastly and this is probably the most important part is that God is not sitting off in the distance going “oh pour Habbakuk, Glad I am not there,
but God’s heart is broken. (musician comes forward) and I am preaching a little short today, because I just feel like maybe this morning whats important to God is not us knowing all the answers, but what is important is that we come and on one hand embrace the issues we face and
on the other hand embrace the God we serve
And as Chelsea is playing I want to read a small part of a book that C.S. Lewis wrote called the Magicians Nephew.
and in this book there is a boy named Digory whose mother has cancer
And He comes to the Lion (who represents God) and begs the Lion to give him something to make his dying mother well.
And this is what C.S Lewish writes
“It’s a heart-rending request—a prayer of desperation—and yet, at the time, Aslan (who represents God) appears to ignore it completely: ‘He had been desperately hoping that the Lion would say “Yes”; he had been horribly afraid it might say “No.” But he was taken aback when it did neither.’ … But a little while later, Digory dares to ask Aslan for help again: ‘He thought of his Mother, and he thought of the great hopes he had, and how they were all dying away, and a lump came in his throat and tears in his eyes, and he blurted out: “But please, please won’t you—can’t you give me something that will cure Mother?” Up till then he had been looking at the Lion’s great feet and the huge claws on them; now, in despair, he looked up at its face. (This is what I want you to catch) What he saw surprised him as much as anything in his whole life. For the tawny face was bent down near his own and (wonder of wonders) great shining tears stood in the Lion’s eyes. They were such big, bright tears compared with Digory’s own that for a moment he felt as if the Lion must really be sorrier about his Mother than he was himself.’ Digory’s prayer remained unanswered, but everything had changed. Now, he knew that the great Lion—in whom all his hopes were resting—truly cared”
This morning I do not have all the anwnsers and like I said in the next couple weeks we will resolve this more, but this morning can I just promise you one thing… God cares about whats happening, and He is heart broken.
What would it look like this morning as we close and and we wrestle through these tough moments to start by coming to God.
Because this last song, that we are doing is called weep with me. (possibly bring up London Terrist attack)
And maybe this morning you just need a space to weep, maybe a space to question, maybe a space to just express some anger.
I want to give us just a couple of minutes while music is playing to whether its in your seat or at the alter to just come to God and ask why or maybe just mourn.
Because I think this is the start of where God wants us this morning so just come to God during these next few moments and then I will pray for us and we will sing this song and close.
2 minutes of soft music
Will you pray with me?
You can stay where you are or come stand and sing