Doing Life God's Way, Part 1

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. 2 Corinthians 5.15 says that Christ died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who for their sake died and was raised. A life surrendered to Christ requires giving up our own life of autonomy in exchange for a life of following after Him.

And in Him, we turn away from the small life of pleasing self to become children of the good and gracious King. Let's listen to this message from Habakkuk 2 titled, Faith, Doing Life God's Way. Habakkuk chapter 2, the point is Judah is behaving badly. The people of Israel were behaving badly and Habakkuk calls on God and says, how can you just stand by and watch? And God answers him. He says, I'm going to judge their wickedness. The Chaldeans are coming. And then Habakkuk has a second question for God.

They are more wicked than Judah is, and you're going to use them to judge them. In other words, what Habakkuk is saying, that's not how I would do it. So in this series, Living by Faith, the message for today is faith is doing life God's way.

Doing life God's way. We're going to see a contrast in this chapter here. Three verses embedded in this chapter of 20 verses that is largely a polemic of judgment against a very wicked people. Because a good God will counter that which is evil and God is good. He will counter that which is evil.

Count on it. And this is what he's communicating to Habakkuk. But what Habakkuk was struggling with here is that he had a decision to make. If I think I know better because he said, God, that's not how I would judge and punish and chastise the wickedness of your people. I wouldn't do it with the Chaldeans. And we can do the same thing if we know better than God. We would say, well, I'm just going to do it my way.

Or we can trust him with obedience and confidence. There are two stories presented in this chapter here today. You can know the right thing to do only when you know what story you're a part of.

What story are you a part of? This is what Habakkuk did after his second question, the Lord answers it. Habakkuk has this and he says in verse one, just as Tom pointed out earlier, he says, I'm going to wait and see what the Lord has to say. I love how verse two begins. And the Lord answered me.

Isn't that wonderful? And the Lord answered me. This is the word of God. This is God's self-disclosure. The creator of the universe speaks.

And here it is. It's written in the written record. And he says, verse two, write the vision, make it plain on tablets. This is the basis of our faith. This is the basis of trust.

Make it plain on tablets. This is God's self-disclosure. He makes himself known. And so as it is God's revelation, there's two things that are abundantly true about it. Number one, it is clear. He says, make it plain.

God's self-disclosure is not ambiguous or confusing. God has spoken. The second thing is that it is authoritative. It has authority. It is written. In this case, it's written in stone. We are bound to it. The word of God, his self-disclosure has authority.

It is clear and it has authority. And the truth of it is that it presents us with hope for now and for time to come. This is the basis of our Thanksgiving. This is a season where everyone is talking about giving thanks.

Here's what I like to affirm. We have someone to whom we can give thanks. It's not just an ambiguous thank you.

It is a specific direct thank you. This is God's doing. History is his story. So we're presented with two pictures in this text this morning. Two ways to do life. Faith is doing life God's way.

All right. So the first one is doing life my way. It's a life of autonomy. So what we have here in this chapter is God is revealing to the prophet Habakkuk. The Chaldeans are coming. Yes, they are a wicked and violent people who have no value in life. They value nobody else's life.

They only value their own. And in this chapter, we have five woes. So it's kind of five statements that God is making. These are the characteristics of an autonomous life. And it is a picture for us as we study it. Many millennia later, centuries later, we're able to look at this and say, this is a picture.

This Chaldean flood coming on Judah. Pictures the destructiveness of the autonomous life, a life without God, a life that does not need God. In other words, it's a life that says, I am the greatest, the most important reality.

Life revolves around me. I am the master of my destiny. It is the characteristic of self preeminence. It is the delusion of self-sufficiency. You did not create yourself.

You had nothing to do with your existence. You cannot even keep yourself alive. And yet we think we're self-sufficient.

It's pretty arrogant, isn't it? But the Chaldean flood on Judah now pictures the destructiveness of the autonomous life, the life that says, I will pursue my passions. The apostle Paul said something strikingly like this in Ephesians two and verse three said also something in Colossians. But he's speaking to the believers that among whom we also once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and we're by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

You're either living one of two stories. You are living your story or you are living God's story. And this is encapsulated in verse four. Those two stories are right here in Habakkuk 2.4. The first one, verse four, a behold, his soul is puffed up.

It is not upright within him. That's the life, the autonomous life that is living my story. It's my life. I will live it my way.

I will pursue my passions. The second one is this, but the righteous shall live by his faith. That's living God's story. Living by faith is living God's story. So as we're talking about living my story, verse five, this is what he says. Moreover, wine is a traitor, an arrogant man who is never at rest. His greed is as wide as Sheol. Two things, arrogance and greed, these are the characteristics of an autonomous life, life lived my way. We all have a problem in our hearts.

I have a tendency to want to live it my way, live my story. We're coming up on Christmas, not too far from now. I know some of us are saying we need to get through Thanksgiving first.

I understand that. But, you know, kids were already thinking about their Christmas list, right? Well, this one little boy is a good Christian kid, so he wasn't writing to Santa. He was writing to God. And he's writing to God a letter. He says, God, I have been, you know, he's trying to make his Christmas list. He says, God, I have been a good boy for six months. He stops and contemplates. He scratches out six months and writes three months. And then he contemplates some more.

He scratches that out and says, OK, two weeks. And then he contemplates again and he scratches that out and he's looking around. And over there is a little nativity scene. And of course, there's Mary and Joseph in the stall. And he goes over there and he picks up the figurine of Mary and he walks back over and he starts writing in his paper. God, if you ever want to see your mother again. Doesn't that perfectly describe and illustrate the human heart?

It does. And there is going to be a description here as God writes the prophecy of judgment upon the Chaldeans. These would be the Babylonians who would take Judah into exile. So he is foretelling something here that because of their wickedness, because of their self-preeminence and self-sufficiency of faithless life, false objects of trust. God says, this is how it's going to end up for you.

We need to learn from this. This problem that we have in the human heart that was illustrated by this little boy. What is it when we live life my way?

If I'm living my story, the autonomous life, you know what's going on? It's the same thing the Chaldeans are doing as they're coming down on Judah. They are using people and loving things. And that's what we do. When I live my story, when I live life my way, when I am not living by faith in God, I am using people and loving things.

And I do it for several reasons. And there are five things listed here, verses six to eight. The Chaldeans would come down and use people and love things for their satisfaction. Woe to him, verse six, who heaps up what is not his own.

That's greed. They're using people and loving things for their satisfaction. And God makes it plain to them that what will become of them is emptiness. Verses nine through 11, they're going to use people and love things for their security. Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house, sets his nest on high to be safe from the reach of harm, security. No one can touch me.

I'm untouchable. And the person who lives life his way, not God's way, the person who does not need God, is not living by faith, uses people and loves things for security. And God makes it clear you will end up helpless. Verses 12 to 13, living life your way, your own story, you use people and love things for your significance. I use them for my significance. Verses 12 to 13, woe to him who builds a town with blood and founds a city, is not from the Lord a host that people labor merely for fire and nations weary themselves for nothing.

Significance in there. And when you use people and love things for significance, you will end up meaningless. God makes that clear, doesn't he? Verses 15 to 17, woe to him who makes his neighbor drink. You pour out your wrath and make them drunk in order to gaze on their nakedness.

You use people and love things for your sense of control. And God says, when you do that, you will end up in humiliation. And then he leads them finally, he says, this is where the real problem is right here, idolatry. Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in him, the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on weekdays at 10 a.m.