PASTOR JOHN COWLES
FAMILY WORSHIP ASSEMBLY
HOPE
Hope We Have – Week 1
Habakkuk
And Habakkuk asks,
“God, how are we going to make it?”
“God, where are you? I thought you loved us?”
Habakkuk 1:2-3 ESV - O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear?
Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? 3 Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise.
“God, how is this fair?”
Habakkuk 1:13 ESV - You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?
Have you ever felt like that? Have you ever uttered those three questions: Will I make it; God where are you and how can this be fair?
Habakkuk 2:1 ESV – I will take my stand at my watch post and station myself on the tower and look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint.
This journey in the book of Habakkuk is supposed to teach us how the journey of faith coupled with hope should look like in the life of a believer.
Psalm 34:10 ESV – The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.
What did Habakkuk learn and know about God that you and I could benefit in our lives today?
HABAKKUK’S TROUBLE!
Habakkuk 1:2-4 ESV - O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? 3 Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. 4 So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous, so justice goes forth perverted.
GOD’S RESPONSE!
Habakkuk 1:5 ESV – Look among the nations and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told.
Habakkuk 3:6-11
For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwellings not their own. 7 They are dreaded and fearsome; their justice and dignity go forth from themselves. Their horses are swifter than leopards, more fierce than the evening wolves; their horsemen press proudly on. Their horsemen come from afar; they fly like an eagle swift to devour. 9 They all come for violence, all their faces forward. They gather captives like sand. At kings they scoff, and at rulers they laugh. They laugh at every fortress, for they pile up earth and take it. 11 Then they sweep by like the wind and go on, guilty men, whose own might is their god!”
Habakkuk 2:4 ESV – … but the righteous shall live by his faith.
Habakkuk 2:14 ESV – For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
Habakkuk 2:20 ESV – But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.
“If I am still on my throne, you can trust me with those things that you do not know or understand.”
THE HOPE WE HAVE!
Habakkuk 3:2 Nlt – I have heard all about you, Lord. I am filled with awe by your amazing works. In this time of our deep need, help us again as you did in years gone by. And in your anger, remember your mercy.
Habakkuk 3:13 ESV – You went out for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed. You crushed the head of the house of the wicked, laying him bare from thigh to neck.
We are not innocent people suffering.
This we need to understand – we were not created to suffer, we suffer because we have rejected God, a rebellion against Him.
GOD DOES NOT LACK POWER!
GOD HAS NOT ABANDON US!
Habakkuk 3:16 ESV – I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us.
Habakkuk 3:17 ESV – Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls.
HOPE & GRIEF CAN HAPPEN TOGETHER!
HOPE IS A CHOICE!
Habakkuk 3:18 ESV - Yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
Philippians 4:4-7 ESV – Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
HOPE HAPPENS FROM REMEMBERING AND REPEATING!
Habakkuk 3:2 NLT – I have heard all about you, Lord. I am filled with awe by your amazing works.
Psalm 103:1-2 ESV – Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! 2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.
You need to stand there with Habakkuk on the watchtower and say, I am going to stay here until who you are and what you’ve done become real to me again.
HOPE COMES FROM THE DEPTH OF FAITH!
Habakkuk 3:19 ESV – God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places.
Nothing has changed! Except for this — Habakkuk changed on the inside.
“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.” Corrie Ten Boom