Bible Text: Habakkuk 1 and 2 | Preacher: Pastor Steve | Series: Engage: Do All In The Name Of The Lord Jesus
Be Utterly Astounded
By Love’s Embrace
The Hebrew Scriptures (OT) were written for the purpose of retelling historic events in order to bring people closer to God.
Habakkuk Shows Us The Heart Of God
Be Utterly Astounded
By Our Relationship With The Lord
Habakkuk 1:1-4 The burden which the prophet Habakkuk saw. O LORD, how long shall I cry, and You will not hear? Even cry out to You, Violence! And You will not save.  Why do You show me iniquity, and cause me to see trouble? For plundering and violence are before me; there is strife, and contention arises. Therefore the law is powerless, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; therefore, perverse judgment proceeds.
Great Relationships Form When They Are Stretched
Be Utterly Astounded
By God’s Answers To Our Problems
God’s Answer: Habakkuk 1:5-6 Look among the nations and watch– be utterly astounded! For I will work a work in your days which you would not believe, though it were told you.
(v 6) For indeed I am raising up the Chaldeans, a bitter and hasty nation which marches through the breadth of the earth, to possess dwelling places that are not theirs.
One Of The Failures Of The Church Is Its Impatience
Be Utterly Astounded
By Belief In God
Habakkuk 1:7-11 They are terrible and dreadful; their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves. Their horses also are swifter than leopards, and more fierce than evening wolves… They all come for violence; their faces are set like the east wind. They gather captives like sand… They deride every stronghold, for they heap up earthen mounds and seize it then his mind changes, and he transgresses; he commits offense, ascribing this power to his god (see Daniel 3:28-30).
It Is Harder To Disbelieve In God Than To Believe In God.
Be Utterly Astounded
By Trust In God
…who is the same yesterday, today and forever!
Habakkuk 1:12-17 Are You not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O LORD, You have appointed them for judgment; O Rock, You have marked them for correction. You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on wickedness…
Habakkuk 2:1 I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart, and watch to see what He will say to me, and what I will answer when I am corrected.
Be Utterly Astounded
By Faith In God
When I overuse my human abilities, I’m often in trouble. But when I let God work first, things go much differently.
Faith Is Not Believing That God CAN, But That God WILL!
Be Utterly Astounded
By God’s Faithfulness In Us
Habakkuk 2:2-4 Then the LORD answered me and said: Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it.  For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.  Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith.
Be Utterly Astounded
By Faith
Romans 1:16-17 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, the just shall live by faith.
Faith does not operate in the realm of the possible
Faith begins where man’s power ends
Be Utterly Astounded
By Faith
Galatians 3:10-11 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them. But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for the just shall live by faith.
Be Utterly Astounded
By Faith
Hebrews 10:35-38 Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise: For yet a little while, and He who is coming will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him.
Be Utterly Astounded
By The Body and Blood Of The Lamb Of God
Matthew 26:26-30 As they were eating, Jesus took some bread and blessed it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, Take this and eat it, for this is my body. And he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. He gave it to them and said, Each of you drink from it,  for this is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many.  Mark my words—I will not drink wine again until the day I drink it new with you in my Father’s Kingdom.