Doing Life God's Way, Part 2

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. This is part two of a sermon that was first preached on November 18th, 2018 at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. And then he leads them finally, he says, this is where the real problem is right here, idolatry. Verses 18 through 19, what profit is an idol when its maker has shaped it? A metal image, a teacher of lies for its maker trusts in his own creation, when he makes a speechless idol, woe to him who says to a wooden thing, awake to a silent stone, arise.

Can this teach? And it sounds crazy, doesn't it? But if you use people and love things in idolatry, you will end up with your life in free fall. You have no ground to stand on. You have a false object of trust. And that's what faith is.

Faith means that you have confidence in an object of trust. And the Chaldeans were showing a false faith and God is proclaiming his judgment upon them for that. Now we have a tendency to do the same thing. When we think of idolatry, we look back into ancient times and we think of these pagan peoples who would chop down a tree and they would carve it and paint it and then bow down and worship it. Nonsense, isn't it?

Oh, I can't believe they would do that. But we do the same thing. We do the same thing. We've got idols in our heart. Not only abuses of natural man, but our backup plan in case God doesn't show up in our crises.

Our backup plan can very much be idolatrous. If you use people and love things for my satisfaction, it would sound something like, if only I had, you fill in the blank, then I would be happy. What's filling in the blank for you? If only I had this, then I would be happy. You know what that is? That is elevating something to a place that only God deserves.

Is that not idolatry? When we use people and love things for our security, we can use things like relationship. I have to have this relationship.

Whether it's a professional relationship or a personal relationship, I have to have this relationship otherwise my life is going to be aimless and I'm not sure I'm going to be able to make it. Whether it's a relationship or a routine. How many of us depend on our routines? I've got to have this routine and if there's something that interrupts that routine, my life is just falling apart because that routine is my sense of security. You have elevated a routine to a place that only God deserves.

Is that not idolatry? If I use people and love things for my significance, it looks something like this. I must have your affirmation and your understanding.

I must have it. And if I feel like you understand me, I am going to become very verbose in making you understand me because I must have your understanding and I need your affirmation. Because if I don't have those things, I'm going to go hide in the corner. Is that not idolatry?

Because you're elevating people or things to a place that only God deserves. If I use people and love things for my sense of control, am I a person that knows only two ways of doing things? There are two ways to do things. There's my way and the wrong way. You know somebody like that?

Probably sitting in the chair you're sitting in. We all have that problem, don't we? Because we think we know better. We think we know best. That's where wars and fights come from. James 4 makes that very clear, doesn't it?

My way. All this is idolatry. We personify things. We trust something and this is what idolatry is. You trust something either you create or something you can manipulate and this is where human manipulation comes in and that's what describes so much of life today, isn't it?

The human manipulation. This is what the Chaldeans were going to do to Judah. It's what Judah was guilty of. That's why God is bringing judgment upon them. But the autonomous life is a life of manipulation.

Why? I manipulate my objects of trust. There's one word for that, idolatry. We can do the very same thing. We can elevate somewhat or something to a place that belongs only to God and we do it for trust, for guidance, for security, for satisfaction. Hear this.

This is a hard statement. It might be hard to swallow, okay, but hear this. To the degree that you are not trusting God, you are living your story using people and loving things for your guidance, security, and satisfaction. You're doing exactly what Judah was doing.

You're doing exactly what the Chaldeans were going to do to Judah. You see, that's the life. That's the autonomous life. That's living life my way. That's living my life my way.

That is Habakkuk 2.4, Behold, his soul is puffed up. It is not right within him, my life. But there's another option, 2.4b, the righteous shall live by his faith. That's living life God's way. In the midst of all of this destructive autonomy that the prophet is seeing as the Chaldeans are coming down like a flood on Judah, even to judge the wickedness of autonomy and faithlessness. The righteous shall live by his faith.

Why? Because it is not my story, it is God's story. My existence is not my story, it is God's story.

And so as we have this whole chapter here as a polemic against the destructiveness of the autonomous life, there are glimpses that we need to find where as we live in a context of destructive autonomous living, where we are called to faithfulness. Look at verse 14. Living life God's way means that we need to see him.

We need to see him for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. That is a promise. This is the word from a sovereign God who says, this is my creation, I am guiding history.

And here's where it's going. Do you know that? Do you understand?

Do you believe that? That's living by faith. It's a living God's story. And the word glory here for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord.

It's a word that means weightiness. It's a word that only relates to God in the sense of he is our creator. He made everything. Not only did he made it, but he sustains it. And not only does he sustain it, but he has redeemed it to himself through the work of Jesus Christ. He will redeem all of creation short of those who will refuse him. But the glory of the Lord, the weightiness speaks of his perfections, the perfections of God.

Imagine God's perfect goodness. There is nothing wrong or evil or bad or deceptive in him at all. He is absolutely good.

Learn this. God is good, period. His goodness does not depend on the circumstances of your life. And whenever somebody says to me, God has been good to me, my first response is, was there ever a time he was not? God is good. Say it with me. God is good, period.

Know that. You see, that's living a life of faith. When you understand that regardless of the junk that's going around you or even in you, God is good, always. It's his very nature. He cannot be anything but good. And a good God will oppose evil.

Here's the problem. Sometimes that evil cuts right through my heart. His perfections. His perfections will prevail. His perfections will flood the earth. He affirms us in verse 16. Look at the end of the verse there. The cup in the Lord's right hand will come around to you. That is God's justice. And his flood will overcome the flood of chaos through the corruption of autonomy.

It will overcome that because God is a sovereign God. So we need to acknowledge his sovereignty. There's only one appropriate response to sovereignty.

What is that? Surrender. What is it you need to surrender?

You need to surrender your autonomy to his sovereignty. And that manifests in submission and worship. Just living by faith.

And when you do that, your life will not be empty and helpless, but will be characterized by being secure and satisfied. Not only do we need to see God, to keep our undistracted focus upon him, but we need to hear him. Look at verse 20. It's the last verse in the chapter. And this is in contrast to the lifeless idols. Not only do we need to see God, we need to hear him.

Verse 20, but the Lord is in his holy temple that all the earth keeps silence before him. The lifeless idols are just that. They are lifeless objects that we tend to personify in order to make them the object of our trust. But these are lifeless idols.

They cannot hear, they cannot see, they cannot teach. And yet how prone we are to worship them. But God says in contrast, he is the living God. He is the living God. He is the communicating God. He is the drawing God. He is relational being. He draws us to himself.

It says in the New Testament of Jesus Christ, in him is life and this life is the light of man. We need to see him. We need to hear him. We need to listen to him. We need to listen to him versus the distracting noise of autonomy. Because there is so much calling for you to practice autonomy today, but we need to listen to him instead of the distracting noise of autonomy. 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.