Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, Pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. How do we respond to the wickedness and the brokenness of this life under the sun? Fear and anger are natural emotions in the face of evil or destruction.
What do we do with those emotions? In this message, Pastor Rich answers these questions from Habakkuk 3, where we find a highly emotional plea for justice, a cry for help in the face of evil. Let's listen to this message titled, Faith, Seeing God's Work. This is part four of a message first preached on November 25th, 2018 at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem.
To hear the whole message, visit www.delightingrace.com. All this turmoil that's going on, and you may feel a lot of turmoil in your life, maybe you're feeling a deep, deep famine or there's a lot of turmoil going on. I will quietly wait. What's going on there?
This is a willful act, a willful choice on the part of the prophet. I will quietly wait. Think about what he means by quietly. Does it just mean he's not saying anything?
It goes beyond that. Where is the quiet happening? In his heart and mind. I will quietly wait. I will rest in his promise.
It is a voluntary action. The trouble is temporary. The trouble is temporary.
Say that with me. The trouble is temporary. What did Paul call it? This light momentary affliction. And you and I will never feel the kind of pain and anguish that Paul the apostle felt.
Yet he called it a light momentary affliction. And so, like the prophet, I will quietly wait. What is this? This is mental rest in confidence. Mental rest in confidence in the one who is the object of my trust.
And it comes by this. It comes by affirming these truths that I know to be true about God. God is good, he is at work, and I am his.
I will quietly wait. God is good, he is at work, and I am his. Whatever storm, whatever turmoil, whatever famine is going on in your life, this is what you need to remember.
God is good, he is at work, and you are his, if indeed you are. You see, that is stewardship of the mind. You are not at the mercy of your emotions.
It is stewardship of the mind. Rest in his promise. Next point, look down at verse 18. Say, Rich, what about verse 17? I'm getting there. Be patient.
Quietly wait. Okay, verse 18. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will take joy in the God of my salvation. Why is this important? Because the prophet recognizes that there are storms in life.
What are those storms? He's talking about a famine, and this famine is consistent with what God said to his people. He said, if you abandon me, if you ignore me, not because God needs the attention, but because God is good and he is our sustainer.
If you abandon me, you are hurting yourself. That's what he's telling them. That's what verse 17 is all about. And if that is true in the famine of life, 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.
What is he saying? We are experiencing the famine that comes from God because we as a people have abandoned him. It makes as much sense as abandoning every meal from here on for the next three weeks. How are you going to feel after that?
Famished. And God says, I am your fountain of living water, and you think you know better, you think you can find your satisfaction and your sustenance in other places, then I'm going to let you try it. And it doesn't work. And that's why the trees don't blossom. There's no fruit on the vine.
There's no olives. The fields yield no food because they've abandoned God. And it's happened exactly as God told his people it would. But verse 18 says he takes joy in his presence. Yet, even though all of this famine is going on, yet I will rejoice in the Lord.
I will take joy in the God of my salvation. In other words, the famine of the immediate circumstances, he does not react in the heat of the moment. Again, you and I as human beings, we are not simply slaves to our impulses. We are volitional, rational beings.
We should not react in the heat of the moment. But instead, in the heat of that moment, of the turmoil, of the famine that's going on, God is the focus of my attitude and the fountain of my emotions. God is the focus of my attitude and the fountain of my emotions. So here's what you need to do. You want to see God work?
You're listening to this? You want to see God work? Practice the presence of God. Practice the presence of God. Be a good steward about what occupies your mind and then practice the presence of God. The prophet says take joy in his presence. I will take joy in the God of my salvation. He is a person.
You were made for relation with him. Practice that. That's why I said so many times, when things get rough and we think we need to do something to appease the God, we tend to think like pagans. Well, you know, if I just get busy doing this, maybe God will smile on me.
You know what that is? That is paganism. That's not the God of the Bible. God didn't create us for the things that we can do for him. He created us because he wants us.
You cannot live by faith until you come to grips with that truth right there. I will take joy in the God of my salvation. Practice his presence. And then in verse 19, God the Lord is my strength. He makes my feet like deers. He makes me tread upon my high places. I will choose to persevere in his purpose.
Willfully choose to persevere in his purpose. He talks about all the rocks tread like deer's feet on the mountains. And there's rocks there.
And the deer can run over them and through them. Does this verse talk about God removing the rocks? 90% of the time, that's how we pray.
God, remove the rocks. No, God, strengthen my feet to run on the rocks. You see, the treachery and the obstacles of life, God doesn't take you out of the trials, but he is your focus and your fortitude through those challenges. That's walking by faith.
That's living by faith. He is my sustenance. He is my confidence.
He is my object of trust. He is God at work. Because I recognize that life is going somewhere. Life isn't just a stagnant existence where every day needs to be just optimal and happy, happy, joy, joy.
God, do that for me. No, God is taking us somewhere. There is an objective. History is moving. My life is moving.
And movement means that there are going to be rocks and obstacles. Lastly, this could be very easily missed, but at the very end of verse 19, it says to the choir master with stringed instruments. It's a guitar, yes, thank you very much. Or a harp.
What is Habakkuk saying here? Meditate on his praise. This is music. This is godly music. Why? Because music touches the emotions and it is inherently meditative.
Why? Because you go over and over and over again. It touches your emotions and you go over it and over it. That's meditation. So what he is saying, meditate on his praise. God, occupy my mind with your truth. Colossians 3 16, my favorite verse, one of them, one of them. Let the word of Christ, what? Dwell in you. You see, that's kind of self-serving, isn't it?
No. In all of its richness, God's word to you is a treasure chest of nourishing wealth. Don't neglect it. Consume it. Fill and inform your mind with God's truth, with his praise. The realities of God in history, the realities of his personality.
Why? Because here, this truth is made clear. God zealously provides for the deliverance of his people. And you know where that takes us? That takes us right back to the cross of Jesus. God zealously provides for the deliverance of his people.
Do you understand that the infinite sovereign God of the universe invaded our planet in the person of his son Jesus, lived a perfect life and he took upon himself the blow of God's holy necessary wrath in your place and mine. Don't you ask me if God cares. He cares and he can.
And he did. God has zealously provided for your deliverance. Remember that. Preach the gospel to yourself.
Preach the gospel to yourself. That's how you live by faith. Remember wrath. In wrath, remember mercy. And because that's what the cross is, isn't it? The cross is the wrath of God. But it is also the mercy of God because it happened in your place. It happened so you wouldn't have to experience it.
And what happened on the cross was a cosmic collision of the wrath and the mercy of God. Preach that to yourself and then follow these steps from Habakkuk as you go over these notes again. Make this a practice of your life. Be a good steward of what God has entrusted to you. 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.
