Faith In the Risen Lord - Habakkuk 1:1-2:4

Habakkuk 1:1... Written around 600 BC. 

Habakkuk was the praying prophet. The whole book is one long prayer. 

We know God is perfect, but sometimes we feel he's too slow, or forgets about us.

The Chaldeans (Babylonians) are so awful they're bringing Habakkuk to his knees. He wants God to get rid of them or change their hearts.

Those who know God is good still call out desperately for God to do his work! 

V5-11... Habakkuk prayed for revival, and God responded that he'd never understand what God is doing if he showed him. If we only knew what he was planning for us!

V12... Habakkuk doesn't like the response. When is God going to show up? And he compares Israel's righteousness with the Chaldeans'. 

Habakkuk 2:1...

We won't have to strive to reach up to God, to impress him. We have Jesus! If you pray genuinely to God, he hears you! You can wait on his goodness.

Jonah... When asked "who is your God", Jonah revealed he's the God of everything, not just the sea. It's all God's! Nothing is beyond his ability. So pray big prayers!

V2-3... God says to write down the message he gives Habakkuk. It will come to pass in time. So he must learn to wait on the Lord.

V4... The deadliest sin is pride. It will sneak in unexpectedly, subtly. Satan wanted worship, some of God's glory. That one unchecked sin led to all the death and sin in human history. Pride rejects humility and submission, and keeps people out of heaven. 

The bad news: you are a sinner. 

The good news: John 3:16!

Pride is deceptive... We can even take pride in how little pride we have! The Pharisees... everything pristine and perfect on the outside, but prideful on the inside. 

We must be humble! We must DAILY submit to the Father. It's hard to pray because it's spiritual. We need the holy Spirit to convict us daily. 

Pride opposes submission to God, but the righteous shall live by faith! There should be no prejudice, it's never justifiable. We must come to the cross and see what WE did to Christ. We are NOT "pretty great." At the cross, pride melts away.

Faith... Hebrews 11:1... The assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 

Real righteousness is faith. God here wants to see us the assurance and conviction in God's Word, and his justice and mercy. 

Hebrews 10:32 quotes Habakkuk. The early church received the holy Spirit, and all hell broke loose... Persecution of all kinds, suffering.

During suffering, Christ is doing something in you that's greater than your comfort.

Trust that God is good even if you don't see it. The righteous shall live by faith!

When you're waiting for God to do something, trust him, even if it takes a long time, because he's true to his word.

The righteous shall live by faith. Who's really righteous? Those who are in Jesus. The just are those who have faith in God! Righteousness can only come through faith.

Romans 3... All have sinned, and are justified only by grace, as a gift! 

Propitiation... the wrath of the Father has been eternally satisfied in the work of Christ! 

The full measure of God will come down again, in even greater measure than before. Jesus is the hope: though we will die, we will live! 

Waiting on the Lord is not passive, but an active endurance, an anticipation of the coming works of the Lord! Being faithful until the works of the Lord come.

God is able to deliver, provide, revive, help you endure a trial! 

Isaiah 40:31... Wait for the Lord, and God will be with you!