Joy In The Time Of Judgement

Joy In A Time of Judgment Habakkuk 3.16-19 The nation was awaiting judgment from God. It was coming through an invading nation, Babylon. Habakkuk is still not understanding this but he comes to accept it. This is similar when we lose someone we love. We don’t understand but we come to terms with living with it. This is the pathway of grief. Life is full of coming to terms with God. God is always at work in our lives, even when we feel most alienated or alone. That is where Habakkuk was. Whether it is the nation, the health of someone we love, the pain from broken relationships or decisions we need to make, life is hard at times. The LORD is here to help us. Look at what He did in Habakkuk’s heart through prayer. It amazing where the LORD brought this prophet to. It was more than acceptance. He was embracing the LORD and what He was going to do. He found joy in the LORD, even in a time of impending judgment! We can too! God keeps His people in times of distress, difficulty and judgment. Noah Joseph Daniel David We can even have joy in these times! Here is how: * Waiting Patiently Does not mean there no emotion It does. Means we are not pushing the river. We are going with the flow of His Spirit. John 7. 38 Whoever believes in Me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” 39 By this He meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. Flow with that River, the Holy Spirit We trust God’s timing. He makes all things beautiful in His time. Ecclesiastes 3.11 We are trusting in God’s plans. Romans 8.28 We are trusting in God’s love. We know He has a plan for us. Psalm 139.16     all the days ordained for me were written in Your book     before one of them came to be. Habakkuk listened to God’s counsel in chapter two. Though it tarry wait for it... * Remember That Shortages Does Not Diminish Hope, Faith, Love or Joy If we find our happiness in things then we will lose it when things run out. If our Joy is in serving Jesus then our joy will no be affected by shortages. Hope is an anchor in times of difficulty. Our faith is purified during trials. Patience comes from this. Our love for God is tested in times of scarcity. We also grow closer to Him in the valleys and difficulties. Priceless gifts come in times of great pressure. Great lessons are taught when we out on a limb, when we are going through difficult and pressure filled times. We are comforted by God and then we can comfort others with the same comfort we received. Hospital Experiences teach us invaluable lessons. The LORD is bringing us to situations where He is our only Hope. Like Habakkuk we can rejoice in the times he describes in the latter portion of chapter 3. Habakkuk had nowhere else to turn. He had tried to figure out what God was doing in the nation. It made things worse in some ways. * We can have joy! In the LORD Philippians 4.4 We can rejoice in Him. He is with us. Habakkuk found out that God was listening to him and his cries. In our salvation Psalm 51.12, 13.5 We are saved from sinful living. Free! Free to obey the LORD. We are saved from a life of destruction. Our sins are forgiven never to be remembered against us! That our names are written down in Heaven Luke 10.20 This world is passing. We are just passing through. I think of those 24 young people that sailed over 150 years ago this past week from London, England to China with the China Inland Mission. Most of their names are not remembered. They obeyed God and today they are in heaven, rejoicing forever. That God has promised to take care of you! Matthew 6.33 We are so thankful for the food we have to eat and the clothes we have to wear. Every need He is supplying. The LORD wants us to live carefree. He doesn’t want us burdened down with worry. * The LORD lifts us up above our circumstances In our hearts Nothing really changed for Habakkuk as far the circumstances in the nation. His Hope was that God would reform the nation, bring about revival of righteousness. The nation had left the LORD no other option but to judge. His prayers were being answered however, just not the way he thought they would be. Yet we see his Hope was in the LORD. When our prayers are not answered as we had hoped they would be and we only have God how rich we are! We pray for God to help and change circumstances. Sometimes He does, but He always changes me. I am changed through my praying to become more like Jesus. He prayed, “Father, if possible, let this up pass from Me.” We read in Isaiah 53.10 “Yet it was the LORD's will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer, and though the LORD makes His life an offering for sin, He will see His offspring and prolong His days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in His hand.” A new perspective Part of the change the LORD brings in prayers not being answered the way I thought they should be is a change of perspective. This was certainly true in Habakkuk’s life. This burden and oracle, what he uttered all showed how circumstances did not change but the prophet did. God is so patient with us, amazingly patient. He allows us to work through these difficult times and issues in our own lives. He works in our prayers. He listens and responds to us, to our hearts. He knows all about our struggles. Perhaps you need a new perspective! God will give it to you. Wait for Him. God’s Habakkuk 1.5 The LORD let’s the prophet in on His plans. When God does that in response to our prayers then our perspective changes to His. We are seeking that with Colombia. The prayer meeting yesterday morning. Heights Ephesians 2.6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, We have a heavenly perspective, a sense of the LORD’s ways being so much higher than ours. On this earth, in a world that is sinful, among people of unclean lips, Isaiah saw the LORD! The LORD gave Him a Heavenly Vision. I love to fly. As I look down from the plane I see a little how God sees. I love to pray from heaven. I know that one Day, one Glorious Day Christ will return. We can have joy all the time. We can be distressed and even depressed and know the joy of walking with Jesus. Today, right now.

God’s Promises In A Time of National Calamity

The Promises of God For A Time Of National Calamity Habakkuk 2.1-4, 14, 20 Things were bad in the nation. Things were out of control. Justice never prevailed and the wicked hemmed in the righteous. Justice was perverted. And in chapter 2 God lists the sins of the people that brought judgment on the Babylonians, the Chaldeans. He pronounces judgment on the nation of Israel in chapter one. Habakkuk and Jeremiah were contemporaries. Jeremiah‘s ministry as we know it was in Jerusalem. Jerusalem the capital and also the Center for the Jewish faith. It knew better. It should have been leading the world in righteousness. Instead it was a center of sin. Interestingly Habakkuk’s assessment of the condition of the nation in the first four verses of chapter one were spot on. It was his understanding of God and God’s seemingly lack of response to his prayers that troubled him. He didn’t understand what God was doing. God was getting ready to judge the nation and the center for their faith, the Temple. What is going on in our nation and in the church in this nation is perplexing. A.W. Towzer wrote, 70 years ago, “I believe a time is coming when we not be able to take our Christianity as casually as we do now.” That time has come. God is sifting His church today. He is calling His church out of the institutional church. What will happen to our country is in His hands. In the early part of this century we have experienced 9-11 and other forms of terrorism. We have experienced a Pandemic. We have passed laws against the Word of the LORD. God always gives us promises for difficult times. And He was making some statements here to Habakkuk concerning the righteous. He said the righteous will live by his faith and He gives promises with that. They were facing national disaster, a calamity beyond anything they had experienced before. They were being judged for their sins. But God was going to be faithful to the righteous. And they were going to live by their faith in Him. When a nation celebrates what God condemns, judgment from on High must eventually come. No one can say how or when or where that judgment will come. But as certainly as God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, as certainly as the great empires of history have fallen, America will not escape God’s judgment. Hard times coming Habakkuk. You are going to have to live by your faith if you are going to get through it. Thus the promise... * The Righteous Person will live by faith v.4 This is going to work out in very practical ways in these days of calamity and judgment. Mental and Emotional Support In a time of judgment our support systems and people we leaned on are often removed. All we have is God. And He is all we need! Physical needs being met in a time of scarcity. Psalm 37.25 I have been going and now I am old. I have never seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. Habakkuk 2.4b The righteous (the just) will live by his faith. Matthew 6.33 Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you. A time of shortages and scarcity upon the nation but the righteous living by his faith. Spiritual strength coming to those who trust in God. The testings brought the people to lean completely on God. They had not other choice. Psalm 11.3 When the foundations are being destroyed what can the righteous do? The answer is here in Habakkuk! He said it. I am going to wait. 2.2 Then the LORD replied: “Write down the revelation     and make it plain on tablets     so that a herald may run with it. 3 For the revelation awaits an appointed time;     it speaks of the end     and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it;     it will certainly come     and will not delay. I am going to rejoice no matter what. God is my strength. I wait for Him. * The Earth will be filled with the Knowledge of the LORD v.14 Kenya, Haiti dancing this week. In other words, there will be nowhere where the true and delightful knowledge of God, who is the source of all life, truth, and joy. There will be personal, and universal knowledge of God. This is not mere knowledge about God, but a relational knowledge of Him and with Him. Just as when you are in the sea, water is all around you, so when you walk the face of the earth, God and the knowledge of Him will be all around you, all the time. This will be a totally transformed, restored, renewed, and redeemed Earth, and animals and human beings will be full of the true knowledge of the true God and therefore permeated by holiness and happiness. “We are looking forward to a New Earth, in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13). Obviously that time is not now. It is Hope for the Future. A promise of God that will be fulfilled. * The LORD is on His Throne v.20 As the Son of Man, Jesus Christ deliberately limited His omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience. But now they are His in absolute, full power. As the Son of Man, Jesus Christ now has all the power at the throne of God. From His ascension forward He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. This is the Day of Pentecost. We celebrate that today. The conditions of the first century are what the church finds itself in many places around the world, growing strong with governments that are either opposed or indifferent to it. God is in control. Jesus showed that to a His disciples. He demonstrated that from the Ascension to Pentecost. Acts 1.3-8 It was not time that God was going to restore the Kingdom to Israel. It was time for the Kingdom of God to come in the outpouring of His Spirit. They would live in it and proclaim it. Then it happened in Acts 2. Jesus had gone up. His followers had been in prayer. He poured His Spirit out. People started coming to Christ. The promises given to Habakkuk nearly 2,600 years ago are for us today... in a time of National Calamity, on this Pentecost Sunday 2021 Let the whole earth be silent before Him. Michael Card’s song comes to mind often... You and me we use So very many clumsy words The noise of what we often say Is not worth being heard Quiet waiting, listening... Listening to what God is saying... Live by faith. Look to the LORD. God is in control.

The Benediction Of Grace

The Benediction of Grace Romans 16. 25 Now to Him Who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, 26 but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all the Gentiles might come to the obedience that comes from faith— 27 to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen. There was a time when we were not so concerned about how many people attended the church as we were that those who attended were established in Christ. Recent conversations continue to show the church’s attempt to compromise with the world. More than ever before the world and all that is in it is setting the agenda for the church in America. This is not the way it should be. This is not what the Word teaches. We are being warned that there is persecution coming for the church in America. This past Thursday for the first time in years we did not have a National Day of Prayer Gathering in our nation’s capital! A sign of the times. A.W. Tozer said, “I believe a time is coming when we will not be able to take our Christianity as casually as we do now.” As the battle intensifies a firm foundation is more important than ever. This Benediction of Grace in the last lines of Romans speak to this. He is Able To establish you Make stable, place firmly, strengthen, set fast, make constant Even those of us who are more emotional than others He is able to establish us. He can make us stable so that our emotions stop ruling our lives. Our feelings are not good judges for what we should be doing. They can lead us to slippery slopes. Even in the worst of times. Rome would soon begin to persecute Christians, Paul executed, John on the Isle of Patmos because of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus. We are established by the Word of God. Matthew 8:3 God's Word is obvious in this miracle. If something requires cleansing, "the washing of water by the word" must be actively present (Ephesians 5:26). God does not work apart from His Word. From the creation of the world to the present, the place of God's Word in His work has been essential: "In the beginning was the Word [the One who became Jesus Christ], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made" (John 1:1-3). In addition, the phrase "God said" is found ten times in the creation account (Genesis 1). The Bible is God's written Word, as the Father had the Word (Jesus Christ, the Spokesman) inspire and reveal it. Many professing Christian churches have pushed Scripture to the back burner, into irrelevance, taking an a la carte spiritual meal from it as if they have the authority to choose which doctrines to swallow and which to refuse. If the true church is to do a work for God, it must be established and built on God's Word rather than on tradition He is able: To accomplish what concerns you today. He will supply all our needs. Philippians 4.19 He will give us peace that surpasses all understanding. Philippians 4.7 To do more than you could ever ask or imagine Ephesians 3.18-20 To do anything Nothing is too difficult for Him! “I am the LORD, the God of all the peoples of the world. Is anything too hard for Me?” Jeremiah 32.27 In this Benediction of Grace we have... The Revelation of Jesus Christ The mystery of the Gentiles coming in The Disciples struggled with this. Slowly they were taught by Jesus and led by the Holy Spirit. Acts 9,10 Peter and Paul SyroPhonecian woman Mark 7.24-30 Cornelius Paul’s call The mystery of Israel believing Romans 11 Israel’s Messiah... the Savior of the world, God’s Son, God in the flesh The mystery of death and eternal life Of Godliness... I Timothy 3.16 Beyond all question, the mystery from which true godliness springs is great: He appeared in the flesh, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory. Prophecy told of the New Covenant. Jesus revealed it. He is the fulfillment of the Ages. I Corinthians 10.11 The Opening of the Holy of Holies The Temple Curtain Matthew 27.51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split We can come with confidence Hebrews 4. 16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. We can come anytime... this was New! - [ ] We can come anywhere, not tied to a locale John 4 Rather tied to a disposition of the heart. The Salvation Christ Made Possible Hebrews 2.3 How shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the LORD, was confirmed to us by those who heard Him. To God Be The Glory! For the Hope of the Ages For those who have come For Eternal Life in Heaven So Paul closes this wonderful letter with this benediction of Grace. May all of what we shared today grow strong in your heart. May your trust be in the LORD and in Him alone always.

Endurance

Endurance Romans 15.1-13 Paul the apostle used imagery of the Olympic Games in his writings. He describes the Christian life as a marathon. Running this race requires perseverance and endurance. The beginning of a race and the end of a race are very exciting. I remember hearing the official say, “Runners take your mark, set” and then the gun would go off. The gun would be fired again as the race entered its final lap, then came the finish line. The most important part of the race was in the middle. Endurance was the key to running long distance. Great starts did not guarantee great finishes. I saw many races where there was a great start and the end the runner was nowhere near the front. I even had a race the coach pulled me out of at Hofstra. I began in first place and ended in last. If we finished too strong the Coach would say, “You didn’t run hard enough. You had too much left over.” The key to long distance running, to this race we are in, is endurance. Endurance is the key to successfully following Christ. Jesus said that whoever endures to the end will be saved. Matthew 24.13 The beginning of walking with Jesus is exciting. We must guard against losing our first love. The end is glorious. The long haul requires perseverance and endurance. In Luke 21. 34 “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap. 35 For it will come on all those who live on the face of the whole earth. 36 Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.” Hebrews 12.1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before Him He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. A key to endurance is not growing weary and losing heart. Coach filled our minds with positive thoughts when we practiced. Growing weary and losing heart are closely related. So many have fallen away. So many have dropped out of the race. Some are becoming weary in doing good. Some are losing heart. We used to sing, “Though no one join me, still I will follow.” We are being sifted today. God is cleansing His Church. He is doing a work that is beyond our comprehension or understanding. God is trimming back His church. The Spirit is saying to the Church in America today, “Wake up! Strengthen what remains...” Revelation 3:2 I encourage you this day to: * Stand Firm * Let nothing move you * Fix your eyes upon Jesus * Fight the good fight of the faith * Finish well * Long to hear those words, “Well, done good and faithful servant.” Endurance... * Endurance Produces Hope. v.4 Endurance= Steadfastness, constancy In the NT the characteristic of a man who is not swerved from his deliberate purpose and his loyalty to faith and piety by even the greatest trials and sufferings. A stedfast constancy in the things of life produces hope. Blessed is the man who keeps his oath even when it hurts. Psalm 15.4 James 1. 12 Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the LORD has promised to those who love Him.” Hope= joyful expectation of eternal salvation We need hope today. The world needs hope today. Hope that is rooted in Christ and God’s plan for the last days. Many are living in hopelessness. Endure hardship as discipline. God is treating you as sons. I believe all too often we pray for deliverance when we should be saying, “Teach me, LORD.” Look at the example of Jesus in Hebrews. Hebrews 5.7-8 During the days of Jesus' life on earth, He offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the One Who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverent submission. Even though Jesus was God’s Son, He learned obedience from the things He suffered. Learning is part of endurance. It is in the long haul life lessons are taught. Hebrews 12. 3 Consider (think over, ponder) Him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. * God Gives Endurance v.5 gives= supply or furnish Too many believers are looking to other sources than the LORD Himself to be their strength. Strength= safety, protection, refuge, stronghold, harbor We need to look to Him. We need to look to His Word. He is the strength of our lives. Psalm 27:1 “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” I John 2:27 As for you, the anointing you received from Him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as His anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in Him. * We Are Called To Overflow With Hope John 7.37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to Me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in Me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” 39 By this He meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. Rivers of Living Water gushing from within us. Hope is in that river! People we touch ought to be filled with Hope. They don’t need just our sympathy. They need Christ. We overflow with hope by staying in the Word of God and being filled with the Spirit. Ephesians 5. 18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, May the God Who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus may the God of hope fill you with great joy and peace as you trust in Him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15.5, 13