Life Church
Abide 2

      • 2 Corinthians 1:3–4ESV

  • I Thank God
  • Way Maker
  • Worthy Of My Song
  • Worthy Of It All
  • Abide 2
    Habakkuk 1:1-4
    1 The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw.
    Habakkuk’s Complaint
    2  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 perverted1
    Habakkuk 1:12–13 (ESV)
    Habakkuk’s Second Complaint
    12  Are you not from everlasting, 
    O Lord my God, my Holy One? 
    We shall not die. O Lord, you have ordained them as a judgment, and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof. 
    13  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?
    Spiritual leaders and Governmental leaders have allowed the Chaldeans to come in and began to destroy Israel. Habakkuk is in distraught because he is seeing destruction and bad things happening to innocent people.
    Seasons of delay, struggles, trauma and death can never define the proximity Jesus followers and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
    God the Father, Jesus the Son and The Holy Spirit are in middle of every season and situation. God moves in all situations.
    Isaiah 55:8–9 (ESV)
    8  For my thoughts are not your thoughts, 
    neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. 
    9  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, 
    so are my ways higher than your ways 
    and my thoughts than your thoughts. 
    Heaven does not react to hell.
    What if Hell is reacting to what Heaven has already done!
    The human mind is the most powerful data recorder. Smells and sounds can retrieve data which activates memories or events that have happened in our past.
    Memories are sustenance for the our journey.
    Hell tries to magnify the bad memories to dehydrate us for the journey.
    Hells agenda for followers of Jesus:
    Jesus proximity to mankind while experiencing suffering.
    Our Heavenly Father is negligent to his kids. He just doesn’t care.
    Crisis will become a catalyst for followers of Jesus.
    To Remember:
    Zakar means "to act on behalf of" or to "bring to mind to do something," rather than just holding a thought.
    Spiritual context - requires the listener to act according to that promise of God, remember the past to shape the present
    ex: The Exodus to the Jews, The Last Supper and Resurrection of Jesus to the Apostles.
    What is your example?
    Attitude of the Follower:
    Habakkuk 2:1 (ESV)
    I will take my stand at my watchpost 
    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.
    Abide - is to wait with expectation
    Are you willing to abide while waiting for the answer?
    Habakkuk 2:2–3 (ESV)
    The Righteous Shall Live by His Faith
    2 And the Lord answered me: 
    “Write the vision; 
    make it plain on tablets, 
    so he may run who reads it. 
    3  For still the vision awaits its appointed time; 
    it hastens to the end—it will not lie. 
    If it seems slow, wait for it; 
    it will surely come; it will not delay.
    Have you wrote down God’s answers?
    Habakkuk 3:1–2 (CSB)
    HABAKKUK’S THIRD PRAYER
    3 A prayer of the prophet Habakkuk. According to Shigionoth.,  2 Lord, I have heard the report about you; 
    Lord, I stand in awe of your deeds. 
    Revive your work in these years; 
    make it known in these years. 
    In your wrath remember mercy!
    Shigionoth.
    There is no one way to express grief or struggle.
    Habakkuk remembers the reports of God’s deeds.

    v.3-12 does not have as much meaning to us as it did Habakkuk. The memory sustained him through this treacherous season.

    Abiding while in DISTRESS!
    Habakkuk 3:16-19
    16 I heard, and I trembled within;
    my lips quivered at the sound.
    Rottenness entered my bones (physical effects that anxiety has on humans. This connects tremble with decay that entered Habakkuk's bones. This seems to describe the kind of fear that cuts through to the very core of your being, which fits with the idea of rottenness of bones.)
    I trembled where I stood.
    Now I must quietly wait for the day of distress
    to come against the people invading us.
    17 Though the fig tree does not bud
    and there is no fruit on the vines,
    though the olive crop fails
    and the fields produce no food,
    though the flocks disappear from the pen
    and there are no herds in the stalls,
    18 yet I will celebrate in the Lord;
    I will rejoice in the God of my salvation!
    19 The Lord my Lord is my strength;
    he makes my feet like those of a deer
    and enables me to walk on mountain heights!
    For the choir director: on stringed instruments.
    1 Peter 1:6–7 (CSB)
    6 You rejoice in this, even though now for a short time, if necessary, you suffer grief in various trials 7 so that the proven character of your faith—more valuable than gold which, though perishable, is refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
    Purpose to Pain

      • Habakkuk 1:1–4ESV

      • Isaiah 55:8–9ESV

      • Habakkuk 2:2–3ESV

      • Habakkuk 3:1–2ESV

      • Habakkuk 3:16–19ESV

      • 1 Peter 1:6–7ESV

      • Hebrews 8:12ESV

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