Sermon Tone Analysis

*The Power of Faith*

/ /

*/Habakkuk 3:17-19/**/ /*/Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: [18] Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.

[19] The LORD God is my strength, and he will/

/make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places.

/

/I Peter 1:7// NLT //"These trials will show that your faith is genuine.

It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold.

So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world."/

/ /

*I.

INTRODUCTION -- UNDER FIRE*

On a clear night in June 2005, four U.S. Navy Seals left their base in northern Afghanistan for Pakistan’s mountainous border.

Their mission was to take out a notorious al Qaeda leader.

They all seemed to have an unsettling feeling that this mission would be very different and dangerous than any they had ever been involved in.

Less than 24 hours later, only one of them would be alive.

His life would be in such a condition that one might have to call it a miracle that Marcus Lutrell, the fire team leader, would even survive.

Early in the mission some goat herders discovered them; reluctantly the SEALs allowed them to leave.

An hour after the meeting with the goat herders, they were confronted on a mountainous ridge by the Taliban.

Some 80-100 begin to fire on them with reckless abandon from their AK-47’s and then they would resort to rocket-propelled grenades to totally destroy some of the top soldiers in the US Armed Forces.

Marcus Lutrell explains that there were some wounds to his own body that he had to endure.

Several times he blacked out from blood loss but when he came to, he would be quoting Psalm 23 in his mind.

In the book he wrote to honor the valor of his comrades, he describes what he felt in this midst of his dilemma:

He had been trained to fight as part of a team.

But up here, being hunted down, all alone—this was entirely another game.

He goes on to tell of how that he crawled 7 miles to a village that chose to give him protection although the Taliban roved through the mountain passes.

It seems that there is an ancient law that once an enemy has entered a camp, he must be cared for.

Lutrell said that he could hear the US Air Force F-16’s flying over head and he could hear the chopping sound of rotors from the US Army Blackhawks and yet he was literally unable to be rescued by them.

In a rescue attempt, one chopper was shot down and 16 other men were killed.

He told of the dark black feelings he had to contend with during the ordeal.

Hope was literally being squeezed out of him because of the conditions that he found himself in.

Wounded with bullets from the AK-47’s and shrapnel wounds from the grenades were leading him into a fevered, delirious state of pain and infection.

Then it got worse as the Taliban came into the village and interrogated and tortured him for over 6 hours.

To  his amazement, they left without killing him.

But during his six hours, he was threatened, mocked, slapped around, spit on, and had to endure all sorts of challenges.

Then without warning, his protectors ran into his room and jerked him up and forced him to begin a night run in the mountains just a small step ahead of the Taliban.

Having had to endure all of the terror of the battle, literally falling down mountainsides for hundreds of feet, the mind shattering pain from his wounds, and now fleeing from the Taliban, he begin to feel a stubbornness stirring within him.

He felt like Mark Twain, ‘the reports of my death are greatly exaggerated!’

This is the sort of thing that Habakkuk is having to explain for his times…

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*II.

HABAKKUK’S DARK DAYS*

There are very few statements in all of history that can rival the defiance of faith that Habakkuk utters here.

However, for such faith to shine out like this there has to be a huge backdrop of darkness.

Consider the dilemmas of Habakkuk’s days:

War and devastation shrouded the land of Judah.

A powerful enemy was about to overthrow the city of Jerusalem.

The Temple of Solomon was going to be defiled.

The country was sitting on the precipice of ruin.

The flocks were being raided by roving bands of rustlers.

The farm land was no longer being cultivated because of sloth and drought.

The godly reforms of the last king were being entirely overturned by the wicked man who was now king.

When you read through the whole book of Habakkuk in one sitting, the prophet paints out a very grim picture.

In fact it is the very depth of discouragement that this prophet seems to be writing of.

It is almost as if there is little room for hope.

In fact his questions roar to such an extent that would appear to put God in a difficult place.

/Where is the God of Israel?

Where is the sign of His presence and watchfulness over His people?/

/What blessing is to be gained from serving Him?                                How much longer can faith hold out?/

/How much judgment can be withstood?/

Hard questions in a very dark day – much like the climate in our nation today.

How much more can we take?

Thank goodness the price of gas has gone down, but this week automakers made a request for major money because last month they sold fewer vehicles than they have in 17 years.

If it’s not one thing, it’s three.

Can a saint of God serve in the onslaught of abortion in the US? (Average 4000 per day or every 22 seconds.)

Can a saint of God make it in a nation that is becoming increasingly more hostile to Christians?

Can a saint of God survive in a nation that exalts lifestyles of wickedness being pumped into homes on a daily basis?

Can a saint of God make it with mounting economic pressures that is full of foreclosures and climbing inflation?

Can a saint of God find solace in nation whose courts seem to favor sin over righteousness and shame over uprightness?

Can a saint of God really serve when unemployment levels are at the highest they have been in 14 years?

We could continue with that list of questions until we ran out of time to show just how dark our days really are.

But the darker the picture was to become, the brighter the faith that would pierce the darkness!

*/Habakkuk writes:/*

The fig tree blossoms have not come out.

The fruit on the vines and the trees have failed to materialize.

The olive trees have failed to give out the oil.

The fields are barren and no produce is found there.

The flocks have been cut off from the fold due to the neglect of the shepherds.

/But in the midst of all of this, there is a defiant faith that reaches above the circumstances created by the disobedience of the nation and Habakkuk allows it to march out of his soul.

He declares that his confidence is not in what he can see but rather in what he cannot see.

God is still in charge of the whole world despite what Habakkuk can see./

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*III.

THREE THOUGHTS ABOUT FAITH*

In all of this discourse that Habakkuk is writing, there are some underlying lessons that we find out about faith.

*/A.

Faith doesn’t have to make sense./*

Faith has its own logic that is from Heaven.

No matter how dark the picture may be.

No matter how difficult the times may be.

No matter what all of the statistics say, faith has a logic that is born from Heaven.

The burdens can be to the point of wilting down even the heartiest of believers, in fact the cart cannot hold another straw, but faith has the ability to bear every bit of it.

Sarah offered her dried up, elderly body. . .

A son broke forth!

Moses offered a rod, a staff to lead sheep. . .

A serpent broke forth!

Gideon offered 300 men who had trumpets, pitchers, and lamps. . .

A nightmare occurred in the enemy’s camp and 120,000 Midianites destroyed each other..

Samson picked up the jawbone of a donkey. . .

and one thousand Philistines got a whipping.

David picked up a slingshot. . .

He left behind a lion, a bear, and a dead giant.

/The Bible and modern day life is full of even more examples of people allowing their faith to break through when they looked to God instead of the circumstances./

How are we going to combat this spirit of the last days that wants us to calm down, keep quiet, and hide in a corner?

The solution is in the book: